Episode Transcript
Rob Broadfoot 0:20
Alright, episode 16, Rob. We’re back, yet again.
We’re back.
Don Mock 0:23
Of course, if you’re binging this, we never really went anywhere.
Rob Broadfoot 0:25
Yeah.
Don Mock 0:26
Yet every episode, I think I start with we’re back, right? Because for us, it’s a daily event.
Rob Broadfoot 0:31
Except the first one, you didn’t start with we’re back.
Don Mock 0:34
No, probably not. I don’t even know what I said on the first one. I think I just blacked out just started talking.
Rob Broadfoot 0:38
You said hello everyone.
Don Mock 0:39
Alright. So, episode 16. Everybody knows we do advertising design and digital work, branding, all sorts of good stuff? So, I thought it might be fun to talk about the ultimate branding. That being, what would be the ultimate branded, that being tattoos, right? The concept of tattoos as a brand expression. What does that say about you? What does that mean? The evolution of tattoos. We’re in a creative industry. We wear a lot of t-shirt and jeans to work, right? We do have the luxury of being in a casual dressed industry. We’ve joked earlier about earlier episodes, about how the clothes you wear, the appearance, as part of your job. Don’t take legal advice from a guy in a jean jacket, that type of thing, right? Well, you don’t want your creative guy wearing, a three piece suit to the brainstorming session. So, we do have the luxury of being able to be a little bit wacky, a little zany, and sort of our day to day appearance, if that makes sense? T-shirt and jeans and whatnot, and tattoos, they’re mainstream. They’re all over the place for crying out loud, right? Everybody seems to have tattoos nowadays.
Rob Broadfoot 1:47
Yeah.
Don Mock 1:47
We’ve now transitioned to face tattoos almost being more and more common. I don’t want to say common, but more socially similar.
Rob Broadfoot 1:58
Definitely more commonplace now.
Don Mock 2:00
Yeah, I’m thinking of Post Malone as probably right now, the most current example of an artist or creative individual with face tattoos. But, there was the one that broke the logjam. Can you read my mind of what we’re talking about? Or what I’m thinking right now for face tattoos?
Rob Broadfoot 2:05
No.
Don Mock 2:19
Mike Tyson.
Rob Broadfoot 2:20
Oh, yeah. Tyson got the tribal?
Don Mock 2:24
Yeah, he got his tribal, I think it’s on the left side of his face?
Rob Broadfoot 2:26
Yeah.
Don Mock 2:27
And it kind of wraps around his eye a little bit.
Rob Broadfoot 2:29
Right.
Don Mock 2:29
And that kind of is its own logo to a certain extent, too, right? There is a design associated with that. There’s a brand and I think he’s used that mark, on some branding, and some things.
Rob Broadfoot 2:29
It would be foolish not to at this point.
Don Mock 2:31
Yeah, exactly. But isn’t that strange? I don’t even know how long ago that was, 15 years ago maybe?
Rob Broadfoot 2:38
Yeah, it was a while ago. I don’t remember the circumstances under which he got that? I don’t know if we was having a meltdown or if that was a very intentional.
Don Mock 2:52
Well, I think that’s what everybody thinks was happening was. He must have had a freakout because he tattooed his face, right? Cut to so many years later, he had a little bit of a comeback in the hangover, right?
Rob Broadfoot 3:05
Yep.
Don Mock 3:05
And has done some things here and there. It’s a little bit more interesting in regards to wow, it doesn’t seem as crazy now, as it did back then, I guess.
Rob Broadfoot 3:15
Well, certainly tattoos, if you look at the history of tattoos. It was a very traditional, I don’t want to say tribal, but it’s very traditional expression of culture, right?
Don Mock 3:26
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 3:26
I mean, you think of Polynesian culture and other cultures.
Don Mock 3:29
For sure.
Rob Broadfoot 3:30
Asian culture and all kinds of different cultures had their own expression. And it was, tattoos aren’t, if you think about them in the traditional sense. They’re not really supposed to be displayed, oftentimes.
Don Mock 3:43
Really?
Rob Broadfoot 3:44
Yeah. If you think about, I don’t remember which culture specifically it comes from, but like David Lee Roth.
Don Mock 3:49
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 3:49
Has his entire chest tattooed.
Don Mock 3:51
Correct.
Rob Broadfoot 3:51
But, you would never know it.
Don Mock 3:52
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 3:52
Because whatever culture that he decided to work with, or appreciate is that, you don’t show it.
Don Mock 3:52
It’s more of a personal thing.
Rob Broadfoot 3:52
You don’t show it to people.
Don Mock 3:52
Yeah. Interesting.
Rob Broadfoot 3:53
Which I think is interesting. And the complete opposite of where we are now.
Don Mock 4:00
Yeah. Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 4:02
And certainly over the years, it’s become increasingly common.
Don Mock 4:09
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 4:10
And increasingly, socially acceptable, I think.
Don Mock 4:13
For sure. Well, I’ve got tattoos. You’ve got tattoos. I always joke with my kids. You’re probably going to listen to those at some point, kids. That when you are in your mid 40s, and own your own company, then you can decide what to get for yourself.
Rob Broadfoot 4:27
Right.
Don Mock 4:27
I don’t know what you say to your kids. If you have any weird.
Rob Broadfoot 4:29
I just say no. Even though I sat in the chair yesterday for six hours, and got tatooed.
Don Mock 4:35
Yeah, seriously. But, that is what spurred the idea for today. I was tattoos and branding.
Rob Broadfoot 4:39
I finished one up yesterday, on my leg. But, I tell my kids, no.
Don Mock 4:45
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 4:46
No, you just got to wait.
Don Mock 4:47
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 4:48
I think, funny enough, my oldest daughter is a senior, and one of her friend’s fathers just took her to get a tattoo.
Don Mock 4:58
Really?
Rob Broadfoot 4:58
Yeah.
Don Mock 4:59
Wow.
Rob Broadfoot 4:59
It was like whoa. That’s kind of, a little surprising to me.
Don Mock 5:02
Yeah, that is surprising. I think because, again, if we think about it as a brand, and fashion and style and whatnot? Those thoughts change over time, what you might want to get tattooed when you’re 18, might not necessarily have the same meaning, twenty years later, right?
Rob Broadfoot 5:18
Right.
Don Mock 5:19
That type of thing. So, versus if we think about marks for companies and advertising and design and whatnot? A lot of those things can stay IBM? I mean, still is basically the same logo for, there’s a lot of things that remain exactly, that is the brand, that mark for that organization. And maybe it tinkers a little bit here and there, or whatever. But, for the most part, tattoos, unless you go full cover up, you’re not exactly changing it, right?
Rob Broadfoot 5:46
Yeah, and it used to be, just thinking about the environment. I remember, of course, I ran off to college and immediately graduated and went got a tattoo.
Don Mock 5:56
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 5:58
Much to my parents dismay. But, I remember going to the tattoo parlor, and it was not a clean, nice sterile, establishment.
Don Mock 6:08
Not what it is now.
Rob Broadfoot 6:15
No.
Don Mock 6:10
Now, there’s tattoo TV shows on all the different networks. So, Netflix on all the different, it’s definitely more, dare I say, mainstream. In thinking about, talking about this for today too, sort of tie it into a design motif. I went and saw the movie, the rest of the world went and saw Avatar Way of the Water. You mentioned the Polynesian tattoo approach. I mean, that is part of the design of the movie. Again, I’m not giving any spoiler alerts, here. But obviously, we have the Na’vi. They go off into the oceans, and there’s a different tribe of cat people and whatnot, right? Well, part of the design, part of the look and feel of the James Cameron movie is, there’s those creatures, have tattoos, covering their face, covering their chest, covering their arms. It is part of the design of the characters themselves.
Rob Broadfoot 6:24
Mmhmm.
Don Mock 6:34
Which is kind of interesting to think about too. I wonder if it would have been that way thirty years ago? I don’t think of any old Star Wars characters, for example, that are covered in tattoos. But, someone will probably email us and say, this person, you know.
Rob Broadfoot 7:14
Yeah, the guy in the bar on Tatooine had the thing.
Don Mock 7:16
Yeah, exactly. But, we don’t even really think about that, or that’s not even a topic where it’s like, of course, those guys are covered in Polynesian tattoos. They’re right, the Fijian version of the Na’vi on, whatever planet that is, that type of thing, right? So, it’s interesting how branding and how that sort of approach has evolved, I think.
Why? Why did you get tattooed?
Wow, you put me on the hot seat.
Rob Broadfoot 7:42
How about that?
Don Mock 7:42
The same thing. The same as you. Went off to college, 3000 miles away from home and wanted a personal form of expression, if that makes any sense? I’m a designer at heart. So design, something I thought was appropriate for me at that time. And then over the years, I’ve just sort of built onto that and grown it from there.
Rob Broadfoot 8:06
Right.
Don Mock 8:07
You know? Yeah. So, I mean, I don’t have a great like, you know?
Rob Broadfoot 8:11
Well, I think that’s what I think. Fundamentally, that’s what they are. That’s what they always are, is a reflection of you wherever you happen to be in life. Yeah, that stage in life and whatever you happen to do.
Don Mock 8:23
Well, I heard years ago, the term collecting tattoos and once you start getting tattooed, I understand where that expression comes from. Right? Because each one kind of does tell a story about where you are in your life, right? A lot of people get tattooed when something sad happens, when a loved one passes and memorials. There’s all sorts of different chapters of our lives, and acknowledging that. It’s interesting that it is a mark, but yet companies don’t necessarily mark things like that, like how we do to our bodies, if that makes any sense.
Rob Broadfoot 8:54
Right.
Don Mock 8:55
Yeah, it’s kind of a weird topic to think about. But, something that I thought was kind of interesting.
Rob Broadfoot 8:59
People always ask if it’s painful, people who don’t have a tattoo. I would say, the best way i’ve heard it described as it’s like, you have a horrible, horrible sunburn.
Don Mock 9:09
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 9:09
And someone just keeps pinching you.
Don Mock 9:11
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 9:11
Just like over and over and over.
Don Mock 9:14
Yeah, I use the, feels like being rubbed with sandpaper kind of approach.
Rob Broadfoot 9:21
Yeah.
Don Mock 9:22
But, you do kind of get the weird endorphin numbness to it. I mean, this is all contingent on what part of your body you get tattooed on.
Rob Broadfoot 9:28
Right.
Don Mock 9:30
Yeah. I guess there’s also that crazy, thought there was a run there for a while to where companies were paying individuals to tattoo brands on them. Remember that?
Rob Broadfoot 9:38
Yeah, that petered out.
Don Mock 9:40
Yeah. Well, I think we had, we were talking about Tyson. There was that run, where I think they were stenciling, like spray painting logos on boxers backs and different things, right?
Rob Broadfoot 9:40
Yeah, absolutely.
Don Mock 9:42
I want to say the boom of the .com era, right? Call it late 90’s. All of a sudden, everybody wanted their .com URL out there. Then it was, we’re tattooing people. And there was the music festival here as well, where if you tattooed the logo of the festival, you would always get free admittance, right?
Rob Broadfoot 10:08
Which one was that?
Don Mock 10:10
Oh, God.
Rob Broadfoot 10:10
Shaky Knees?
Don Mock 10:11
Shaky Knees, I believe. Yeah, it was the lightning bolt. Right? Or something like that, or whatever that was.
Rob Broadfoot 10:15
I don’t know. I still think this Web Van tattoo on my neck looks pretty good.
Don Mock 10:21
Yeah, we’re still getting free grocery delivery, right?
Rob Broadfoot 10:24
Right.
Don Mock 10:25
Web Van, that was fun. It was a fun time.
Rob Broadfoot 10:27
Now, I do remember when they did that. It was more like a stunt.
Don Mock 10:30
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 10:32
But, it would be interesting to go find a couple of those case studies of people who actually.
Don Mock 10:37
Who tattooed the brand somewhere or of some sort?
Rob Broadfoot 10:41
Yeah.
Don Mock 10:41
I don’t know. I guess maybe that’s it for tattoos. I don’t know if there’s much more to discuss. It’s an interesting thought in terms of applying it from a design perspective. Like your personal logo or your personal story.
Rob Broadfoot 10:54
Alright. Well, I think that’s it for a tattoo discussion today. Thanks for joining us. As always, you can find us on the interwebs at mocktheagency.com and on the socials @mocktheagency. And certainly drop us a line, give us some feedback. You can find us also on, where else, Spotify and Apple and all those good places?
Don Mock 11:13
Wherever you get your podcasts.
Rob Broadfoot 11:14
Wherever you get your daily podcast.
Don Mock 11:16
Drop us a five star.
Rob Broadfoot 11:17
Drop us a five star. Talk soon.
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