Tattooed Artwork Inks Guinness World Record For Largest One Yet
Photo 21719931 © Chavdar Dobrev | Dreamstime.com
An artist in Atlanta has, in his own way, moved the needle and scored a Guinness World Record for the largest tattoo artwork.
J. R. Outlaw, a tattoo artist from Iron Palm Tattoos, unintentionally hit the milestone after creating a massive portrait of Takeoff, the late rapper from the hip-hop group Migos, with the usual tattoo materials on a canvas of synthetic human skin.
The entire work stands 12 feet tall and seven feet wide, and measures a total of 79 ft 6 in². Backing the project were his tattoo shop and another parlor called Atlanta Ink.
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It cost over US$30,000 to ink Takeoff’s face onto the silicone canvas due to the heap of materials required. Plus, the team went to great lengths to locate the perfect sheet of silicone of that size that was free of defects and bubbles. They finally managed to source it from contacts in the film prosthetics industry.
Surprisingly, the world record was attained by accident. The artists said they had merely planned on honoring the star’s indelible legacy in music and the city, but the result ended up becoming larger than they had imagined. The Guinness World Records then verified its scale had never been seen before on a tattooed work.
Since the masterpiece was created with the same ink and needles used for body art, with the difference being that it’s 12 feet tall, Outlaw stresses that it’s a real tattoo.
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The artist encourages onlookers to touch the artwork, which he says feels like real skin. It’s “actually a tattoo,” and not a painting, he proclaims.
The crew is in talks with art galleries to potentially have the work put up on display.
[via Men’s Journal, Atlanta News First, Guinness World Records, images via various sources]
