The Space Race – Alien Tattoos

With Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos nearly tripping over each other in their own private billionaire space race, we thought this would be a good time to dedicate a few posts to sci-fi and other things cosmos, and their intersection with the world of tattooing. No one has yet (to our or the general Internet’s knowledge) etched an image of the Virgin Galactic VSS Unity or the Blue Origin New Shepard on their skin. 

Nor has anyone gotten SpaceX’s Crew Dragon done, for that matter. In September it is scheduled to carry another billionaire, Jared Isaacman, along with three civilian astronauts on a three-day trip to orbital space at an altitude higher than the International Space Station. However, in general, no one is as obsessed about pop-culture as sci-fi fans. 

We are willing to bet that if you took all the skin with all the Star Wars-themed tattoos in the world and laid it out (now that is more of a horror sub-genre), it would make for a pretty decent wrap around maybe not earth, but at least one of the smaller planets in the solar system. Meanwhile, while there seem to be a little less of them, tattoos that feature motives or nods to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror cult classic series Alien, are no less iconic. 

The strange love affair with the Xenomorph

In 1979, the world was introduced to the Xenomorph. And for some reason, fell utterly in love with the endoparasitoid species with a habit of bursting out of people’s midsections. The term ‘facehugger’ has since forever inspired fear rather than cuddly vibes. The iconic film monster created by Swiss artist H.R Giger later appeared in the sequels Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien: Resurrection – and on a bunch of people’s skin across the globe. 

People get all kinds of pieces in honour of their favourite slimy extraterrestrial – full colour realism, blackwork silhouettes, and even slightly cute and cartoonish traditional vibrant pieces. The original badass space heroine, Sigourney Weaver’s unforgettable Ripley – featuring a gun, an astronaut’s helmet, or a cat, also gets her fair share of needlework. Even the symbol of the spaceship Nostromo and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation logo have made their way onto human canvases. 

Artists usually see a massive influx of requests for Alien themed tattoos around and on April 26th. This date is officially known as ‘Alien Day’ since in the original film the characters land on the moon Acheron, formerly known as LV 426. (It’s kind of like May the 4th, only with less of a lisp.) When and how would you like to honour your most iconic pop-cultural reference?