Extreme Tattooing

Tattoos are becoming extremely commonplace nowadays.  Everyone from rock stars to A List film stars to Miley Cyrus to my Nan has a tattoo now.  Most people would feel comfortable about having a tattoo nowadays, although most would only get something small rather than copy stars like Angelina Jolie and have patterns and tattoos all over their body. When it comes to tattoos, the popular view is that small and subtle is best.

But not everyone feels like this.  Some people like tattooing so much that they take it to the extreme.  They cover their whole bodies in tattoos, some people just going for lots and lots of designs that they like and others going for a theme across their whole body.

One example of this is a man known just as Rick.  To be fair he doesn’t need anything else — he has had his whole body tattooed to make himself look like a zombie, so it’s not like he needs a second name to distinguish him from other Ricks.  He has spent over $4000 Canadian dollars on getting his tattoos and over 24 hours in the tattoo chair.

Some decide that they are going to use tattoos to make themselves look more like animals.  Tom Leppard spent £5,500 on tattoos to have himself covered in spots so he would look like a leopard.  Horace Ridler is tattooed from head to toe in black and white stripes to mimic a zebra.  Dennis Avner, also known as Catman, has had his entire body tattooed to mimic the fur of a tiger.  Eric Sprague, aka “The Lizardman”, has had 700 hours of tattoos in that give him the appearance of being covered in scales.  The Tiger Lady has had her entire body covered in slashed stripes to give her the appearance of a tiger.

Tiger Lady was once married to another heavily tattooed gentlemen, The Enigma.  His entire body is covered in tattoos of small blue puzzle pieces.  This “look” is part of his whole stage persona; he is famous for his dangerous stunts like sword swallowing and inserting a drill into his nose.  He’s not the only one who treats his tattoos as part of a greater art of performance; Etienne Dumont is an art and culture critic who is covered from head to toe in bright, vibrant tattoos and Lucky Diamond Rich, a chainsaw juggler from Australia, has spent over 1000 hours being tattooed.  Firstly his entire body was covered in colourful designs, then he tattooed his entire body black (even his gums and eyelids) and is now having white designs over the black.

But sometimes these extreme tattoos serve a greater purpose.  Julia Gnuse was born with porphyria, which often makes her skin blister and scar.  She started getting tattoos in order to cover up the scars caused by the blisters, and now is so covered in them she has the world record for being the most tattooed woman in the world, known as the illustrated lady.