“Without him,” James Hetfield wrote on Instagram, “there would be NO Metallica.”

“Him” is Lemmy Kilmister, the bassist and growling singer of Motörhead, the English heavy-rock trio known for their 1980 track “Ace of Spades.”

Metallica has covered several Motörhead songs over their career. Those include recorded versions of “Overkill,” “Damage Case,” “Stone Dead Forever” and “Too Late Too Late” collected on the San Francisco via Los Angeles quintet’s “Garage Inc.” 1998 covers release.

Now, Hetfield has taken the homage further. Way further.

Hetfield, Metallica’s singer and rhythm guitarist, has a new tattoo on his righthand middle finger of an Ace of Spades superimposed over an Iron Cross. Kilmister was an avid collector of World War II memorabilia.

According to Hetfield’s post on Metallica’s Instagram, his tatt’s black ink was “mixed with a pinch of his [Kilmister’s] cremation ashes that were so graciously given to me.”

After Kilmister died in 2015 after 70 hard-living years, Lemmy left behind instructions for some of his ashes be put into bullet casings and sent to friends. The post included a photo of Hetfield flipping off the camera to show off the tattoo, while holding his Lemmy ashes bullet in his other hand. “So now,” the caption reads, “he is still able to fly the bird at the world.”

Recipients of those bullets are said to include the likes of Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, metal singer Doro Pesch, Whitfield Crane of the band Ugly Kid Joe, and Riki Rachtman, former host of MTV’s “Headbanger’s Ball” and infamous Hollywood rock club The Cathouse.

Motörhead and Metallica was a mutual admiration society. Kilmister, guitarist Phil Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee cut a cover of “Whiplash,” from Metallica’s debut LP “Kill ‘Em All,” for a 2004 tribute album. Motörhead’s version won a Grammy.

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