5 NFTs people have coined on their skin
Since at least 2017, communities have rallied around NFT projects all over the place, as seen with the explosion in popularity that the CryptoPunks community and others have enjoyed IRL, in the form of community meetups and events. But for others, projects have inspired so much love in some members’ hearts that they’ve decided to represent their favorite NFTs IRL permanently — with tattoos.
Considering the recent increase of NFTs existing in our physical world, it’s no surprise that enthusiasts have adopted NFTs they own, or simply like a lot, in a deeply personal way. After all, what could be a more personal and lasting way to show your love for a specific project than to have it burned into your skin? It just lasts forever, much like the NFT itself.
OSF delivers on the promise of getting a straight guy tattoo
In solidarity with a community-wide rally to raise the rektguy NFT collection to a floor price of 1 ETH on NFT marketplace leader OpenSea in December 2022, project co-founder OSF kept his promise to get a tattoo of his iconic creation upon meeting the target. At the time of writing, the collection has a floor price of 1.65 ETH on OpenSea. With even higher milestones on the horizon for the PFP NFT project, it may only be a matter of time before OSF and other brave members of the rektguy community get ink again.
Gunna’s iconic Bored Ape tattoo
Taking part in the massive NFT bull run late in 2021, rapper Gunna bought a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT for more than $300,000 in December 2021, according to a video posted on the four-time Grammy nominee’s official Instagram account.
To deepen the bond with his newly acquired monkey, the rapper named his NFT “Butta,” and proceeded to tattoo it on his leg.
Over the years, the Invisible Friends PFP NFT collection has garnered a lot of love throughout the NFT community, largely thanks to how inherently inclusive it is. Every Invisible Friend NFT can be anyone. Given the project’s openness to people of all backgrounds, community support has been strong since its initial launch in February 2022. It also helps that each invisible friend’s threads are unforgettable.
As a token of appreciation for the collection’s simple, clean and tasteful art style, many members of the Invisible Friends community have proudly shared their permanent body art with the world.
Goblintown tattoos galore
Courtesy of Truth Lab co-founder GR≡Y, longtime Goblintown supporters Aging Death proudly shared their matching Goblin tattoos with the rest of the community in September 2022. They’re not the only residents of Goblintown proudly flying their Goblin flag, either. During a community event in December 2022, several members of the Goblin faithful followed after 1 p.m a tattoo booth in the event area.
Madlad gets Larva Lad’s tat
With its massive success, CryptoPunks have hailed as one of the world’s true OGs, a flood of projects have followed in the wake of inspiration from the original collection of generative PFP NFTs. Larva Lads is no different. A game about CryptoPunks creators Larva Labs and their important creation, Larva Lads is a collection of 5000 pixelated larval NFTs.
In a massive endorsement of this project, NFT artist and collector raws.eth proudly kicked off 2022 by sharing something deeply personal with the Twitterverse: a tattoo of his own personal Larva Lad NFT.
Is it open season on NFT tattoos?
Although people get tattoos of licensed characters and IPs all the time without asking permission, things tend not to be that simple in the still growing NFT space. Often, individuals will get NFT-related tattoos themed after or directly depicting NFTs under their ownership.
Since tattoos represent a massive commitment on the part of the “tattooer”, much of what gives these tattoos meaning is tied to the blockchain. In some ways, tattoos represent the spirit of how blockchain technology and NFTs have a leg up over Web2 technologies. They are permanent – a welcome departure from the increasingly transitory nature of our world.
