by Mandy & Jon (@mandyldewaal). Ugly tattoos. They’re with you for life as long as it takes to earn enough cash to get those bad babies removed at a laser clinic.
But the notion of awful body modifications creates a dilemma for aspirant tattoo artists, who dream of a life spent inking skin. How do you become an Angelique Houtkamp, Valerie Vargas or Robert Pho without serious practice — without a hectic number of hours marking kilometres of skin?
Lew’Lara\TBWA devised the perfect solution for Tattoo Art, a digital magazine from Brazil. Called “The Skin Book”, this Moleskin-like notebook contains pages of synthetic material that replicates that which covers the human body. Now, instead of practicing upon oranges or raw chickens, reluctant lovers or next of kin, novice human ink artists may flesh out portfolios in their Skin Books.
The agency created a great video about The Skin Book which is a classic bad-story-turned-glad story. The YouTube flick, which runs for just under a minute and a half, starts with the tragedies: the fugly tattoos. A badly drawn Mexican bandit between two cacti, Jesus pinned to the cross banging on some drums — also awfully executed.
“I had a friend from childhood who started doing tattoos,” says one sad-looking tattoo victim, who then pulls her hair off her neck to reveal a symphony gone wrong.
“I was a bit traumatised, actually, because I felt judged,” she says, teary-eyed — a young woman who was the willing subject for a novice tattoo artist.
“I only practiced on oranges maybe twice, and then I grabbed a friend,” confesses Gabriel Guida, who is a newcomer to the world of inking bodies. The camera pans across his studio to reveal some oranges, bananas and a raw chicken, all untouched, near them Guida’s inks and needles.
The commanding voiceover then states: “Tattoo Art Magazine presents The Skin Book, for a world without regrets. A design project created exclusively for tattoo artists. Every page is made out of synthetic skin and recreates a part of the human body. The perfect way to practice and create a portfolio.”
The little movie then shows Guida looking at the notebook of synthetic skin, carefully assembled so that each part of the body is represented between the two covers: “What is this… ?” Guida asks, but then he instantly gets it and exclaims: “Fantastic!”
The voiceover ends: “Because for Tattoo Art, having a tattoo on your skin should always be a reason for pride.”
Published by Mythos Editora, Tattoo Art is a relatively young title — only 21 issues have been published to date — but this campaign has put that digital magazine on the global map. Stories about The Skin Book have appeared in the UK Daily Mail, Gizmodo, Business Insider, the UK Express and much more.
In his book, “Outliers”, Malcolm Gladwell wrote: “Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.” The Skin Book ensures emerging tattoo artists can get there without sacrificing too many of their friends, lovers and family.
Credits inked by Creativity:
Client: Tattoo Art Magazine
Agency: Lew’Lara\TBWA
Executive creative producer: Felipe Luchi
Creative director: Claudio Leite
Creative director: Pedro Henrique Garcia
Copywriter: Paulo Lima
Copywriter: Raoni Leao
Art director: Paulo Mariano
Art director: Paulo Ribas
Design: Sthefan Ko
Mandy de Waal and Jon Pienaar are writers, and are the co-founders of Jo!Ma Media — a company that creates kief content.
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