(nautilus, squid, octopus)

 

I loved the idea of Light Grey Art Lab’s temporary tattoo show, Beautiful Forever. Despite its tongue-in-cheek title, the show celebrated the fleeting nature of these tattoos — so I guess it was fitting that by the time I found out about it, not only the submission deadline but the entire exhibit was long gone.

 

As a joke on myself (and a reminder to pay more attention to those art calls) I drew some steampunk tattoos. Nothing sings anachronism, the state of being always in the wrong time, more than steampunk. And once I got started, adding cephalopods seemed only natural. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, one of the first steampunk novels, Captain Nemo sails the Nautilus, a submarine that was way ahead of its time. Like the creature it was named for, the Nautilus used a form of jet propulsion to cruise the seas. If you watch clips of cephalopods shooting through the ocean, you’ll notice their movements look somewhat mechanical. Of course it’s really the other way around - our jet propulsion machines were built in imitation of the cephalopods.

 

Prints and products available at Society6. I usually have mixed feelings about them, but I think the tote bags turned out really cute this time!