Exclusive Clip from A&E’s EPIC INK - Cthulhu

In this exclusive bonus clip from Epic Ink, Max (and his mom) comes to Area 51 Tattoo in search of a tattoo of Cthulhu, the mythic beast dreamed up by H.P. Lovecraft, who described him as “a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind.”  Yikes. Max was in good hands, though. Area 51 specializes in pop culture tattoos, and Josh Bodwell, the artist who did this piece, is not just a geek trivia king, he is also a “licensed LucasFilm tattooist” (Did you guys know that was a thing? I didn’t know that was a thing). 

It turned out pretty well, and I have to say, Max’s mom reacted way better than mine would have. The GeekTyrant crew is strangely uninked given our demographics and occupations, but we are always on the lookout for cool ink when we go to cons, and this piece definitely qualifies. Here is what Bodwell said about designing the tattoo.

“I wanted to capture the horror aspect of H.P Lovecraft's Cthulhu but I also felt there's a sci-fi element to the creature as well so I opted for brighter tones than you'd typically expect from a 'horror' tattoo. I wanted to also give it the illusion of scale within his environment so I added more fine details to the foreground and allowed the image to appear 'softer' towards the background to give it depth of field. I had a lot of freedom from the client and a lot of freedom on the design since Cthulhu's image is left up to the reader's imagination.  Overall it took me about 6.5 hours and I'm stoked on the final result!” 

You can see more awesome geek tattoos on Epic Ink, which airs on Wednesdays at 10:30 pm ET/PT on A&E.