Indelible impressions.

January 7, 2008

Indelible impressions.

We get a lot of phone calls. We get people peering into the windows of our office, or being brave and coming on in. Their story is the same: they have thought about it for a long time, and they’ve finally decided to get that heart/butterfly/skull/name put on their ankle/arm/back/butt. And they’re always disappointed to find out that we’re an ad agency, and not a tattoo parlor. As one person commented, “This is the nicest tattoo parlor I’ve ever seen!” We do love a good tattoo, however. A blast from the recent past: Tattoo Projects sponsored the 2006 ANA Annual Conference in Orlando. We brought along Miami-based artist Gil Machado, and inked more than 20 senior-level marketers with real tatts. We also created ANA’s first-ever social networking site for their annual conference. Marketers who got tattooed included Eric Hadley, now of Heavy.com, and CBS Riot’s Rich Lobel. Gene Simmons didn’t get a tatt, but did enjoy hanging with the Tattoo Projects crowd. Same with Stuart Elliott, who covered the story in The New York Times:“ ”TATT’S ALL, FOLKS. One popular attraction was a makeshift tattoo parlor sponsored by Tattoo Projects, a marketing and production agency in Charlotte, NC. Rudy Banny of Tattoo Projects charmed about 20 people into getting tattoos — permanent ones, not the temporary type. The first to go under the needle was Eric Hadley, GM for the Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions unit of Microsoft, who was tattooed on his right foot with the names of his children, Francesca and Jasper, to accompany a previously acquired tattoo on his left foot bearing his wife’s name, Gina. Why did he do it? “I haven’t been to a conference that had a tattoo artist in a while,” Mr. Hadley replied deadpan.