A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

All Red Portrait Tattoo

Done at NIX (the Toronto tattoo convention) this year, I believe in response to a “you can’t do a portrait all in red” challenge, is AndyTheBollox‘s new tattoo! I’d say they succeeded.

red1.jpg

Comments

51 responses to “All Red Portrait Tattoo”

  1. k8m Avatar
    k8m

    ed norton from american history x?

  2. Emily Avatar
    Emily

    is.. is that edward norton?

  3. .jordan Avatar

    thats what iwas thinking

    hurray! for curb stopping

  4. .jordan Avatar

    **stomping**

  5. socialcoma Avatar
    socialcoma

    curb stomping is not vegan

  6. copper_wire Avatar

    why would someone get a portrait of Ed Norton from AHX?
    and, uh, curb stomping doesn’t get a “hurray!” when you grow up in a place where racist skins actually curb stomp people you know….

    the red is nice. With my luck, if I tried for an all red tattoo, I’d probably have a terrible reaction and my entire side would melt off. Sexy.

  7. gillian gamine Avatar

    curb stomping isn’t hooray-worthy.

    you know, maybe i’m alone in this, but i really hate it when tattoos have definite borders or when they’ve got shading stuff outside of the actual design or subject. what i mean is, edward norton’s head would be much more interesting without the background.

  8. Warren Avatar

    Andy don’t pull his head up like that…makes Ed look like a CONEHEAD! 😛

    but mighty nice!

  9. teresina Avatar
    teresina

    lol. rad.

    or red.

  10. Andy Avatar

    Yeah, the skin is pulled weird in those shots. My bad. I’ll post some good shots on my page in a few days.

    And clarification, it was finished the day before the NIX, not at the NIX. Just FYI.

    The story behind it is thus… Denis (the artist, my boss) and I were talking about the possibility of an all-red portrait. We bashed about what would be awesome and appropriate to do in red. We were watching AHX one Sunday afternoon, and the decision was made. At the NIX last year we talked to Bob Tyrell and Paul Booth about the idea, who had some mixed feelings about the possibility of doing a portrait with only red tones. Denis felt that he had it worked out in a technical sense, so we did it. And it worked 🙂 Bob remembered our chat and seemed very impressed, I’m happy to say.

    The biggest challenge for Denis was how tattooed skin turns red… So working out subtle shading in red is a bitch. But he did it.

    So yep, it turned out. And won two awards at the NIX.

  11. Warren Avatar

    the white in the eyes is freaky, very much like how it is in the actual movie hahaha

  12. Frances Avatar

    Nicely done, though I think it’s strange to put a portret of Norton’s character from AHX on your skin … Gives me thoughts. But well, de gustibus et coloribus non disputandum est.

  13. VikingValkyrie Avatar

    Wow.

    That’s really all I have to say about that.

  14. Ivan Avatar
    Ivan

    i remember watching you get the first session done and damn did it ever turn out amazing.

  15. Viking's Valkyrie Avatar

    Ok, it really is breath taking.

    In the shot on the right though, Ed has a booger hanging.

  16. Briggitte Avatar
    Briggitte

    Its a bit creepy but other then that I think it looks very well done.

  17. Dorian Antes Avatar
    Dorian Antes

    Nobody said to curb stomp one ethnicity over another. Curb stomping gets a hurray in my book as long as we are practicing equal opportunity curb stomping. And as long as nobody curb stomps an animal. And no aliens. Unless they’re E.T.

  18. JenO33 Avatar

    [email protected] opportunity curb stomping

  19. RICK Avatar
    RICK

    He got the old bald man tattooed on him because he can’t wait to get homo-erotic in prison.

  20. Viking In LaFleche Avatar

    That is amazing. If that is done only in red with the various shading is unbelievable. Truly a great piece of art. Old bald men aren’t so bad. We’re all going to get there someday. ;o)

  21. Andy Avatar

    NOOO RICK, that is my one true fear… Getting Pwn3d by bubba in prison. And yes I know, if I ever wound up in jail, bubba would see the irony and pwn me twice as hard. And I am not comfortable with that. WHO COULD BE!?!

  22. DuG Avatar

    It looks great, even better in person.

  23. socialcoma Avatar
    socialcoma

    why not John Wayne, Elvis, Scott Baio, Black Jesus, Shannon, white jesus, Mexican jesus , Gandhi or any other person on earth that doesn’t represent a future prison ass pounding. Hope you got lube dude

  24. ARAkas Avatar
    ARAkas

    If your scared of getting the “Brown Sea” parted in prison. You should think of getting some writting done in white ink on the butt. If memory serves me rite (I doubt it does) white ink tends to show up on the skin very well, when the skin goes red Such as from heat (from fiction and many other things). Id guess lube in prison wont be on Bubba’s to buy list.

    One major down fall now i think about it. How well would Bubba’s reading be? Maybe its better if u just dont go to prison.

    Amazing tattoo by the way. I would have expected it have to be done in many sitting a little bit at a time to let the redding of the skin to go down so u could see were your shading. Hopefully it holds up over time. Yet time will be the only teller of such things i guess.

    GO BUBBA GO!

  25. Amber Avatar
    Amber

    Seriously well done. I like it.. but they eyes are creeping me out, I can’t look at it for more than a few seconds.

  26. Mess Avatar

    now that is cool.

  27. Isa Avatar
    Isa

    Seriously creeps me out, because it looks just like my brother. I couldn’t watch AHX without crying because Ed Norton looked so much like my brother in that movie. Incidentally, he shaves his head, too, but not because he’s a skinhead. At least I hope he’s not. 🙁 Damn. That’s gonna give me nightmares.

    But the tattoo is nicely done. lol

  28. Spicazi Avatar

    I really love Edward Norton, especially when he plays a bad guy :3

    A++ in my books!

  29. Maledict Avatar
    Maledict

    oh, quit griping about the curbing, it’s not like he shot someone.

  30. original_sly Avatar

    wait… he did shoot someone. then curbed him.

  31. Meadow Avatar
    Meadow

    American History X, I’m assuming?

    Very nice. That’s pretty awesome.

  32. pip Avatar
    pip

    hahaha, curb stomping wasn’t the only uncool thing that happened in that movie, but since when do people think stomping someone’s head into a curb is cool. And as for “nobody said curb stomp one ethnicity over another”, AHX is a movie about racist skins, remember…

    great tattoo. I’d like to see an all red portriat of that crazy blue woman from the fifth element.

  33. miketheshoe Avatar
    miketheshoe

    just sayingbut i really doubt that andy is ever going to prison

  34. wickedgame6 Avatar

    I loved that movie…and him :]

  35. kuroneko711 Avatar

    Very well done, I remember having to do stuff like this only on canvas in art class, and its not easy then. I’m sure its a lot harder to do when you’re on bleeding skin so you cant see the shading you’ve done accurately.

    As for the curb job thing, I dont think 1 that anyone actually thinks its cool to go out and smash someones head on the curb. and 2, I didnt hear anyone say “horray curb jobs on other races!” You may have ASSUMED because the movie is about racism, but assumptions are dangerous, and usually wrong.

  36. emily Avatar
    emily

    i think that derek vinyard (ed norton’s character in AHX) is an awesome example of a turnaround from one extreme to the other. sure, he kills two men at the beginning of the movie, shooting one and curb checking the other… btw this tattoo is the look on his face when hes done killing and the cops show up to arrest him outside his home… but from prison he emerged a changed man. and personally, i think that if this were a tattoo of him as a level-headed, clean-cut non-killer, it wouldnt be as stirring a piece of artwork.

    I really like it, and i really dont think it would be nearly so awesome if it were done in plain black and gray like most other portraits. mad props.

  37. blackandblue Avatar
    blackandblue

    love it love it love it

  38. Lexci Million Avatar

    WOWWWWWWW ANDY! *jealous*

  39. Vance Avatar

    It reminded me of american history x as soon as i saw it so i think it is ed, not sure though..

    Anyway, hooray for curb stomping, I agree. 🙂

  40. copper_wire Avatar
    copper_wire

    # 35: actually, I think all the “hooray for curb stomping” and the “curb stomping other races” posts are in reference to two posts, one saying “hurray for curb stomping” and the one saying “nobody said to curb stomp one race over another.” assumptions are dangerous, but if someone says hurray for curb stomping” and the movie that the curb stomping in in reference to is about racist skins, I don’t really see them as dangerous assumptions, or necessarily wrong. In fact, i don’t think any assumptions were even made. There were no value judgements passed on the person who got the tattoo or the person who firct made the “horray for curb stomping” post. The thing about this blog is that people make posts in response to any number of factors in the posted picture or any factor in the posts, none of these things are necessarily related. Maybe you ASSUMED people, like myself, who made posts referencing curb stomping and racist skins were making dangerous assumptions, but curb stomping is, in fact, noy cool when referenced in the context of AHX, especially if you, like me, grew up in a place where the things in AHX happened to people you knew and, like me, are not white. By making a comment about that i wasn’t saying “shame, all you people love curb stomping non-white people!!’ I was just saying exactly what i said… maybe you assumed i or others were making assumptions because you’re just not comfortable with these topics…But there i go assuming again…..

    now forget about curb stomping already, the tattoo is f’ing crazy. And there was a lot to AXH besides curb stomping….

  41. tucker Avatar
    tucker

    Technically incredible to be sure, but a tattoo of a neo-nazi (albeit a fictional one) none the less.

  42. LD Avatar
    LD

    i thought american history x was cool when i was in middle school, but now it’s merely a decent movie. the overall message of the movie was good, but having a super sexy lead man as a neo-nazi only glamorized racism. unfortunately, most people are too dumb to grasp an overall message. i suppose i’m too sensitive to appreciate the quality of this tattoo. i’m automatically turned-off by it because of the subject matter. gross.

  43. Andy Avatar

    As Chopper says, you all need to “Harden the fuck up” 😉

  44. Fred Avatar
    Fred

    The colors are great but the proportions are TERRIBLE. It looks like it was done by somebody in a beginning drawing class.

  45. Jordan Meeter Avatar

    Ahh! American History X was such a good movie!

  46. Andy Avatar

    44: A funny thing happens when you lift your arms… The skin on your side stretches. Weird huh?

  47. ella minnow pea Avatar
    ella minnow pea

    i actually thought this was anton lavey :T

  48. socialcoma Avatar
    socialcoma

    I feel like curb stomping someone

  49. Br1t Noxxious Avatar

    why is the guy holding himself like that?
    it looks like he’s trying to cover something, or maybe pull up his tit? lol I guess he’s just lifting up his shirt but I wouldn’t expect one to do it like that…

    for some reason that is intriguing me more than the tattoo (which I think turned out amazing by the way, I’d be really interested to see how it looks down the line…)

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