Is fashion the next logical step for tattoo artists in the limelight? Tattoo artists designing their own clothing is certainly nothing new. Costa Mesa clothing company To Die For, has been doing their thing with a growing roster of artists since 1997. Black Market Art Company – another California based business – has been creating and selling their T-shirts with the help of artists like Tim Hendricks and Robert Atkinson since 2005. Most recently, LA Ink star Kim Saigh designed a line for Vans, set for a summer 2009 release.
Perhaps one of the most famous tattoo artist designed clothing labels is Yellowman, owned and operated by Peter Mui, aka Yellowman. According to the official Yellowman website, Mui’s time is spent scouring the ends of the earth for the greatest tattoo artists willing to design clothing. The result is a line in which T-shirts can cost anywhere from $100 to upwards of $800, depending on the shirt and artist. The clothes have a definite “pro-wrestler” vibe about them, if you know what I mean. Still, the Yellowman website offers photos/proof of various celebrities who wear the clothes: musicians Tim McGraw and Sean Paul, some American Gladiators and pro baseballer Jose Canseco.
It is, in my humble opinion, inevitable that tattoo artist designed clothing will take off in a big way. With tattoo art increasingly viewed as the art form that it is, demand for specific tattoo artists will only increase. Let’s face it: if Kat Von D put out a clothing line in which she personally designed every item, that stuff would sellout faster than bananas at a monkey convention.
For the artists, clothing offers a secondary method for covering flesh with their work. Clothing also opens up the option for people who may love a particular tattoo artist’s work, but who may not be able to or even want to undergo the commitment of getting the real thing done.
Hopefully, the future of tattoo artist designed clothing brings a variety of stylish and highly original things to wear. I also hope that the prices stay reasonable because $800 for a long sleeved t-shirt is whack.
Check some clothes out: