South African Artist Tattoos My Logo on His Arm

Back in 1978, I created the "Question-Mark Bird" (shown at left). I liked this design because it requires the viewer to adopt a creative frame of mind when looking at it.

For example, seen from one perspective, the design looks like a bird; from another, like a question mark; and, if you turn it upside down, it looks like a seal bouncing a ball on its nose.

I've used this design in various places: in my books (A Whack on the Side of the Head), in the Creative Whack Pack, and also as a some time logo for my business. You might say that this design has "worn well" through the years.

You can imagine my surprise (and delight) when I recently discovered that a certain Roy Blumenthal, a South African artist, liked this design too — so much that he tattooed it on his arm!

I'll let Roy tell the story in his own words:

"The folks over at MISSING LINK are offering their buddies and clients a free tattoo. This threw me into a panic. And I quickly pulled out one of my favorite of Roger von Oech's WHACK PACK cards... 'Solve the Right Problem'. I love this image. I copied von Oech's question mark into ArtRage, and started messing around with it. The red/pink background is meant to represent skin tone." [shown at left]

So, here's Roy's finished tattoo.

This is what Roy said about the process:

"This didn't hurt much at all. It was more of a sort of vibrating vague sting, that numbed out after about ten minutes. When the colors settle, this will be a very painterly piece of skin. It's not discernible now, but everything is blended and shaded and graded. I'll post a pic in a week or so, when it's looking more like it ought to."

Roy also made a series of short videos about the tattooing process which can be found here.

Good luck with your tattoo, Roy! Tell all your friends who like it to go to creativethink.com!

Comments

[Alex von Oech]

Funny that you mentioned the 'seal bouncing a ball on its nose' upside-down visual. That's the perspective he'll have most of the time when he looks down at this left arm.

[Roger von Oech]

'seal bouncing a ball on its nose'

I was thinking that too. Perhaps he'll discover some other shapes.

[Randy Bosch]

And with arm-flexing, your design has gone from two-dimensional to kinetic to articulated!!

Raises some very interesting ideas about other creative logos - let's animate them and see what added value occurs!

And, on the more (or less) practical front...Is the tat on his left arm? He could get a green one for the right arm.
(Port/Starboard thing)!

[Roy Blumenthal]

Hiya Roger...

Thanks mightily for your call last night! (South African time, it was sometime after midnight, so I only heard your voice message in the morning.)

I have to say that it was thrilling for me to hear from one of my two creativity gurus! (The other one is Michael Michalko.)

My right arm already has a tatt on it. If you click the link on my name in this message, you'll get through to an illustration I made of it. I think I'll have to take a photo of it at some point. Rest assured... It's real. It reads 'Right Arm. Property of Roy Blumenthal.' It's at: http://flickr.com/photos/royblumenthal/310586394

Thank you so much for writing about the process. And for not suing me for copyright infringement!

I hope one day to be able to do a visual facilitation at one of your talks. My portfolio's online at http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation. I make live visual interpretations of the content of talks, seminars, workshops, and meetings. This is all done digitally on a tablet pc. Which is hooked up to a video projector, with my paintings-in-progress being screened in realtime.

Blue skies,
love,
Roy

[Roger von Oech]

Randy: How much would you charge IBM to tattoo their logo on your forehead?

Roy: I look forward to seeing the finished version of your Phoenix tatt. IF you're interested, I've got some other designs you might want to apply to your back. : -) Good luck!

[Stephen Denny]

Roger: now you'll have to start selling motorcycle leathers with Whack Pack across the back. You'll scare the hell out of those other guys.

[free tattoo designs]

What seal? Maybe worm :)))

[Pharmacy Drugstore]

Congratulations on your page, it is really interesting

[no prescription needed]

hey i love the second tattoo.. great job dude!!!