Some people are so much tougher than others when it comes to tattoos, aren’t they? We’ve all heard of folk who’ve passed out or thrown up – but then there are others who find it ‘therapeutic’ (I like to call them ‘fucking liars’), while others still people laugh about the situation.
Still, spare a thought for Hendrik Schönenberg – he was under the needle for a two full days as he had a ‘horror clown’ tattoo completed across his entire back, which comes to life when he moves. Throughout the process, he couldn’t stop cracking jokes. Check it out in the video below:
As you would imagine with a tattoo this complex, it wasn’t a one-man job. Oh no, artists and pals Torsten Malm, Adrian Ciercoles, Moriel Seror and Kätlin Malm collaborated on the design together before inking up their client with the gory art.
Most disturbing of all, the clown is brought to life when Hendrik moves his muscles, as the its scarred, wrinkled face grimaces and leers with each movement.
Footage of the creepy artwork in motion went viral on Facebook, racking up more than 240,000 shares and likes, and more than 12 million views.
The team in action. Credit: Kennedy News and Media
Tattoo artist Torsten, 33, from Finland, said: “The four of us have been friends for a while and thought it would be a great experience to work on a bigger project all together. But it was actually the client’s wish to do a horror clown piece and he commissioned it from us.
“He gave us a lot of artistic freedom to design it ourselves. We had a lot of fun coming up with the design together and trying to make it as terrifying as possible for him.”
Thirty-two-year-old Adrian, from Spain, said: “We prepared the design for one day, and tattooed for two days. Each day was about 10 hours long. All in all, almost 30 hours of work was put in by four artists simultaneously to make this tattoo as amazing as possible.
“But having said that, this was probably the most fun any one of us has had during a tattoo session. Hendrik was an amazing client, and cracked jokes all the way through even though he was in a lot of pain.”
The final result after two days of tattooing. Credit: Kennedy News and Media
The tattoo artists, who work at Mori Occultum in Munich, Germany, claim Hendrik was delighted by the final result while others were terrified by it – although this didn’t faze them.
Moriel, 31, from Germany, said: “He made it very easy to work with him so we enjoyed the process a lot. That means a lot to us as artists because long hours can easily get very tiring for us as well.
“He was amazed and very grateful for it. He did an amazing job in getting through those two days. It isn’t easy when four artists work on you at the same time. Actually, despite what the horror picture might suggest, we thought he was one of the kindest people in the world.”
Hard at work. Credit: Kennedy News and Media
Their Estonian colleague Kätlin, 31, added: “People are mainly baffled that you can actually possible do a tattoo like this. A lot of people were scared and disgusted by it too – but that’s exactly the reaction that you would expect for a creepy clown tattoo. It told us we’d done our job.
“I think we were pleased that you couldn’t tell which part was done by what artist. It looks like a complete piece made by one artist. We couldn’t be happier with the end result.
“All four of us have amazing chemistry and we work together like a well-oiled machine. We’re looking forward to working together as a group again soon.”
You can follow the four artists on Instagram at Torsten Malm (@torstenmalm_tattoo), Kätlin Malm (@katlinmalm_tattoo), Moriel Seror (@el_mori_tattooartist) and Adrian Cier (@adriancier).
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media