Tattooed Part 2

In 1996, I was asked to create an image for the new single Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine. I’ve always loved the band and had already done a few other things for them. I really liked the song and its message and energy.

I drew inspiration from the first verse of the song : "The microphone explodes, shattering the molds". I quickly drew an image with a marker, thinking it needed to be as rough and energetic as the song. The image was mostly printed in negative, that way, it became even more visually dramatic.

The art was used in several applications, including singles, CDs, posters and even T-shirts. You can see some of them below.

What I didn’t expect was how many people would choose to get the image tattooed on themselves. Here are some photos.

 

Tattooed

In the early 80s, I drew this drawing for the cover of the book "The Turning Point" by Klaus Mann, published by the Croatian publisher GHZ. In 1987, I used that drawing for the poster of my solo exhibition in New York. Then in 2012 Dejan Krsic used it on the last page of my monograph "Fist to Face". Then in 2012 they used it again to promote my exhibition in Montenegro. And yesterday I see it tattooed on this person's back. Some things just won't go away. 

Otherwise, this is not the first time that my drawing has been tattooed on someone's back. This is what my drawing looked like tattooed on the back of Timothy Robert Commerford, the bassist of 'The Rage Against The Machine'.

Artwork for "Rage Against the Machine"

My recent acquisition: single Bulls On Parade by Rage Against the Machine.  

I never had this single with my artwork in my hands despite it being released in 1996. 

 

Bulls On Parade T-shirt

 

I just came across an unpacked in pristine condition T-shirt of Rage Against the Machine from 1996.

On the back of the T-shirt they used an image I created for their CD, Bulls on Parade.

 More here.

 

 

 

Lovesick Skateboards

I created this illustration for Steven Heller, who was the art director of the book review in the New York Times in 1993.

Soon after, I was contacted by someone from Rage Against The Machine to see if I would allow them to use this image for their banners on stage and T-shirts. They had already been familiarized with my work, because the bass player, Tim Commerford, already had a tattoo of my work on his arm. This started our collaboration together for some years to come.

The T-shirt became quite popular and at the time I saw young people wearing them. One of these young people was Aleks Lewandowski from Lovesick Skateboards. Aleks recently contacted me to see if he could use that very same image from almost 30 years ago on one of his skateboards. And of course, because he wanted to reflect that period of that time again, so he also created a T-shirt.

A few days ago I received a package with a few skate decks and T-shirts with my art on them. What is even more important to me, there was a very sweet hand-written note from Aleks that I am posting below without his permission.

Getting this note today was worth the creation of the work itself nearly 30 years ago.