World Record Tattoo Honors Late Rapper Takeoff
Following the untimely death of Takeoff (real name, Kirsnick Khari Ball), last year at a Houston bowling alley, tattoo artist J.R. Outlaw wanted to do something to honor the late-Migos rapper.
A native of Lawrenceville, a suburb of Atlanta, Outlaw wanted to find a way to celebrate Takeoff’s impact on the city’s culture (Outlaw himself is a Decatur native). In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Outlaw explained the story behind the Takeoff tattoo.
“I think he was just a big influence in the city” Outlaw said. “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.”
Outlaw, an artist at Iron Palm Tattoos & Body Piercing, originally planned to create a mural, but, later decided to a design a tattoo of the late artist. Working with another Atlanta-based artist, Christian Verrette, the two reached out to Guinness World Records to find out how they could set a record. Besides being at least 2 square meters, and using professional tattoo inks, the company told the artists that they needed to use appropriate silicone skin (that properly mirrored human skin).
“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,” Varrette said, “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.”
Taking two months to complete (even working up to the day of the presentation), Outlaw ended up submitting their fourth attempt at the design for approval.
In the end, sizing in at 7.395 square meters (79 ft 6 in²) , Guinness World Record recently designated it the largest tattoo artwork. More than 3½ times larger than the Guinness requirement, Outlaw explained how it happened. “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?”
Under the adjudication of Michael Empric, the art piece was made official at a presentation at Atlanta Ink.
“I really love that it celebrates the community,” Empric 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.”
The tattoo pays tribute to Takeoff’s solo album The Last Rocket. As the cover art depicted the late artist riding a rocket ship in space, Outlaw decided to fittingly dress the artist in a spacesuit.
Outlaw is now looking for a space to exhibit the piece. For now, at least, fans of Takeoff can get the tattoo design inked on their own body.
A video was posted to @ironpalm_outlaw on Instagram following the tattoo.
Featured Image Via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,