Tattooist creates mesmerising flipbook-like animations of his work
Some people want a tattoo that no one else has. Others, like the clients of 29-year-old Canadian tattoo artist Phil Berge, want to be part of a bigger story.
Well, a flipbook story, that is.
Berge's stop-motion animations have been attracting plenty of attention on the internet, as each image is a shot of a completed tattoo.
Here's one of Bart Simpson doing a kickflip on a skateboard, as told by the tattoos of 19 human participants. It is very, very cool.
Berge is from Quebec City, and has been creating his animated tattoos for a year now. Like some of us, he experimented with stop motion videos as a child.
"It's something I used to do when I was a kid with my parents camera and figurines. So, now that I'm a tattooer, I decided to try it with tattoos for fun and it worked," he explained.
"And people liked it so I made a bunch more."
He finds his clients via Instagram, where he posts photos of the next animated tattoo he wants to do.
"I try to keep the subjects interesting to tattoo collectors. Then, people message me if they are interested and we set up an appointment to do the tattoo. People don't usually know each other," Berge said.
It's no quick job, obviously: A four-second loop can take between 1 to 3 months to finish, as he needs to find subjects, do the drawings, find people to tattoo on, do the tattoo, photograph it, then edit the video.
"The end result is really satisfying though," Berge said.
Among Berge's favourites is his tattoo of The Skeleton Dance, as it's the "most complex" he's completed so far. The tattoo references Walt Disney's namesake 1929 short film.
"It has 28 tattoos and syncing the animation with the music was a real challenge," he explains.
Berge ultimately wants to travel the world and tattoo as many people as he can, as the whole project has a "unifying vibe" he didn't anticipate when he first started.
We're probably a long way off from animated tattoos, but at least we've found the closest thing.
