British soccer superstar David Beckham loves Prison Break. So much so that he got a Michael Scofield-style sleeve tattoo. Spreading from his upper arm to his wrist, the arm sleeve tattoo surrounds a previous cherub tattoo on his upper arm. The additions took six hours to complete, a couple of hours longer than it took the make-up artists to apply the fake tattoo to the rather yummy Wentworth Miller each day during filming of Prison Break.
Beckham is not the only one to have noticed the Prison Break tattoos though. Prison Break style tattoos have become so popular that different versions have been inked on the bodies of fans the globe over. These tattoos are usually in monochrome black ink, cover a large expanse of skin and are often quite gothic in style. They also invariably carry a secret message or two incorporated into the symbols and designs of the image.
The phenomenon of the Prison Break tattoo style has sped through tattoo fashion so fast and so passionately that Toyota car company sat up and took notice. In the US TV Gauide last October, readers could pull out and save a 16 page supplement dedicated to Prison Break Tattoos and the Toyota Yaris. Yes, we thought that was pretty surreal too.
Apparently this is a new advertising technique called leveraging – something I always associated with banking loans and constructing foundations, but what do I know? Leveraging in advertising terms means using one brand to promote another synergistically. All well and good, but who is the bright spark who came with the idea of the Yaris and Scofield’s sexy tattoos being in any way, shape or form compatible?… and does he (or she) still have a job?
Give the company credit, though. They did hire Tom Berg to design the images. Tom Berg is a tattoo artist in California. He designed the tattoos we all dream about – yes, the ones in X Men, Red Dragon, and of course Prison Break. We like Tom Berg. We’ll forgive Toyota.
