Monumental Tattoo Artwork Sets Guinness World Record In Honor Of Takeoff

In a remarkable feat of creativity and dedication, a colossal tattoo paying tribute to the late Takeoff has achieved a remarkable milestone by securing a Guinness World Record for the largest tattoo artwork ever created.

Spanning an awe-inspiring 7.395 square meters, the masterpiece was a collaborative effort by renowned artists J.R. Outlaw, and Christian Verrette, and a team of talented individuals from Atlanta Ink, Iron Palm Tattoos & Body Piercing, and Pèse Noir. Employing professional tattoo ink, the design was meticulously etched onto silicone skin, drawing inspiration from Takeoff’s iconic album, The Last Rocket.

The artwork portrays the beloved artist donning a vibrant spacesuit adorned with captivating orange and brown tones. Reflecting on the colossal undertaking, Outlaw shared his thoughts with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, stating, “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?”

The team, led by Verrette, recognized the potential for a record-breaking achievement and reached out to Guinness World Records. Verrette revealed that the arduous task of locating suitable silicone skin proved to be the most time-consuming aspect of the endeavour.

He explained, “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. 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.”

The official recognition from Guinness World Records came last week when adjudicator Michael Empric confirmed the achievement. Empric expressed his admiration for the artwork, stating, “I really love that it celebrates the community. 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.”

Devoted fans of Takeoff now have the opportunity to embody their admiration by acquiring the tattoo design for themselves. Meanwhile, Outlaw is actively engaging with local art galleries, aiming to showcase this monumental piece of art to the public.

He emphasized that the creation of this masterpiece was driven by the desire to create a lasting memorial, stating, “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.”

Reflecting on Takeoff’s significant influence on Atlanta’s music scene and culture, Outlaw expressed, “I think he was just a big influence in the city and the culture of Atlanta, like in general. 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.”