Tattoo of Takeoff Sets Guinness World Record for Largest Tattoo Artwork
Measuring at approximately seven square meters.
A tattoo of the late Takeoff has officially set a new Guinness World Record for the largest tattoo artwork.
Measuring at 7.395 square meters, the piece was designed by J.R. Outlaw, Christian Verrette and other artists from Atlanta Ink, Iron Palm Tattoos & Body Piercing and Pèse Noir. The tattoo was created on silicone skin utilizing professional tattoo ink, with the design taking inspiration from Takeoff’s The Last Rocket and seeing the late artist sporting a spacesuit in orange and brown tones. “As it was coming together, the skin just kind of started getting bigger and bigger, but it was just like, once we started, once we committed to doing it, it was like, well, how big is the biggest one?” Outlaw told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Verrette then contacted the Guinness World Records about possibly setting a record and revealed that scouting for the appropriate silicone skin was the longest part in the process, “We bought some less expensive machines because tattoo machines are like $2,000, so the ones that we use for our work are really expensive.” He continued, “A piece like this — it’s so massive. You spend 30, 40, 50, 60 hours straight tattooing it, and we didn’t want to wear out our expensive machines, so we brought some $400 or $500 machines off Amazon.”
Guinness World Record adjudicator Michael Empric made the record official last week. “I really love that it celebrates the community,” he said. “It’s not like he just did something in his head that was random. It celebrates Atlanta, the music scene, and it’s more impressive in person than I expected. I saw a picture of it yesterday, and I was like, ‘Ok. We’ll see.’ Then you see it in person, especially when it’s standing up and it’s just astounding. Here’s the thing that happens all the time is that someone may see this and they say, ‘Oh, I could do 8 square meters, I can do 9 square meters,’ and that keeps me very happy.”
Fans of Takeoff can get the design inked on their body, and Outlaw is reaching out to local art galleries to exhibit the piece, “It just means, that me personally and the artists that helped me with it, that we just did something special, but we didn’t do this for our own recognition. Even though people are starting to see us about it, it really was just to memorialize him.”
“I think he was just a big influence in the city and the culture of Atlanta, like in general,” Outlaw said of Takeoff. “It was really the whole group. They made a real lasting impact on the city, so we just wanted to do something to memorialize him, and that’s really what it was about.”
Elsewhere in music, Travis Scott announced an official release date for UTOPIA.
