Fan counts the beat in lyrical ink

SKIN DEEP: Stevi-Rae Te Tau, who has lyrics from a Six60 song inked on her back, is to have the art signed by the band members. The signatures will also be inked. PHOTOS/LYNDA FERINGA

Stevi-Rae Te Tau has a love for music that hurt at first but will last a lifetime.

The 26-year-old Masterton woman lives and breathes melody and rhythm. She is the namesake of late American guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan - her brother was named Tommi Lee after the Motley Crue drummer - and she works the bar at King Street Live, the only dedicated live music venue in the town.

Inked music-lover Stevi-Rae Te Tau.

She has tattooed on her forearm a portrait of the late soul diva Amy Winehouse alongside a snatch of lyrics from Back to Black, and her mum Ngaio is also a fan. Stevi-Rae owns a guitar she vows to one day play as well.

Reaching the length of the left side of her back, she also had tattooed the lyrics to Green Bottles - a song about life, struggle and strife from the award-winning Kiwi band Six60.

"That song reflects a certain time in my life when I was younger and the words have a lot of meaning for me.

"I was in Australia when Six60 broke and we didn't hear much of them over there. I actually liked their song Lost, then Mum told me about Green Bottles, and that was definitely me."

Stevi-Rae became so enamoured with the song and the band, she had veteran Masterton tattooist Clint Thornton ink the lyrics on her back over a three-hour session in January, the words reaching from shoulder to waist.

Several weeks ago Stevi-Rae and her friends fell upon the idea of having the five members of Six60 sign their names on her back as well, which she would then have inked as a unique and genuine flourish to the tattoo.

The band plays next month at the annual Jim Beam Homegrown festival on the Wellington waterfront and Stevi-Rae posted on the festival web page a photo of her tattoo and a request to have the band autograph her back.

"I put it up on a Friday to see what they could do and tagged about 50 people. By Sunday it had gone viral. I was told the boys were definitely keen to sign my tattoo," Stevi-Rae said.

"It's kinda cool how it happened through all these people I've met and very cool I get to see them play live at last and meet them at the same time. Awesome."

Six60 formed in Dunedin in 2008 and debuted in Wairarapa at the inaugural La De Da festival on New Year's Eve in 2011. The band's self-titled debut album was released that year and debuted at number one in the New Zealand charts, selling gold within its first week of release.

The band made a clean sweep at the New Zealand Music Awards in 2012, taking several awards.

Six60 will play the Dub & Roots Stage at Homegrown 2015 on March 7 alongside 56 other acts on the Wellington waterfront on March 7. Tickets cost $109 each and are available at homegrown.net.nz.