Crazy. As the tattoo world expands and becomes more intertwined amongst mainstream culture, so do the methods and styles in which people tattoo and are tattooed. Art is something that constantly evolves and while exactly what “pushing the boundaries” means in terms of tattoos can be entirely subjective, I am the sort of person who always likes to see new things being tried with any art form, even if they are well, a little bit silly.
What do I consider a little bit silly? Well, how about jumping out of a plane and getting tattooed while falling 11,000 feet to earth? Silly? Yup. Pushing the boundaries? Sure, why not? Canadian musician Zeke Galt got the initials of his band Surefire Machine (SFM) tattooed on his arm while skydiving last year, becoming the first person ever to be tattooed while skydiving. I have only one question: why the hell did it take me almost a year to hear about this???
The stunt required a custom tattoo machine to be built and was tested on some fruit during a couple of trial jumps prior to the big day. Satisfied that the best possible tattoo machine had been built for Galt’s jump, he set out with another friend Al Christou who graciously did the tattooing.
“I always thought tattooing was the most extreme and dedicated form of art so I thought, ‘Why not push it one step further?'”
-Zeke Galt
The end result looks pretty much exactly how you would expect a tattoo done 11,000 feet in the air to look like, and the entire thing took 15 seconds. That’s a pretty fast tattoo. So fast in fact, that it also earned Galt the title of receiving the fastest tattoo in the world.
It’s different, I’ll give Galt that much, and no doubt that it was a lot of fun. What’s next? Tattooing underwater? Oh man, I sure hope so. Anyway, here’s an interview with Zeke as well as video footage of the actual jump.
Enjoy.