Beware innocent party people, Skinjackin is no figure of speech. Those French pirates are standing by to board, unmercifully preying on your delicate skin, brushes tight between their grinning teeth.
I might as well warn you right now, there is nothing you can do to stop them. Your body is nothing but a ship they are invading, a blank canvas they share and cover with puns, colorful characters and whatever crosses their twisted minds. What’s that? You want a dolphin on your shoulder? A teletubby on your hip? Don’t be naive, no pirate could possibly care about your cute little requests.
If skinjacked , you’ll obediently offer your body to talented but slightly vicious hands, and gratefully become a temporary living piece of art, got it ?
The first victims were chosen one night of March 2009, when two of these very special pirates got tired of regular canvas and decided that people themselves would be a much better challenge, as they were such a lively, smelly, elasticated support.
And it was on. That ship has been sailing for two years now and the crew continues to grow. There you’ll find tatooists, graphic designers, even bakers. No matter their background as long as they dig creation and improvisation, they’ll be more than welcome to lend a hand and share their doodles on the victim’s body. Because those pirates have hearts of gold, sharing any piece of flesh is a sacred duty.
Despite, according to the Skinjackin boys, “drunk assholes, noise and bad lighting”, which can make performances a bit arduous, they enjoy live shows more than anything else. Private shows can be relaxed, but what they really dig is the great energy shared with the audience and the blank skin of their hostages changing hands until it looks the way they want, oh yes, that’s the stuff.
They are always ready to attack festivals, private parties, wherever the wind takes them, or more accurately, where they can make enough doubloons to pay for their very expensive equipment.
Of course, as they will remind you, they didn’t come up with the rich concept of body art as such, but it is fair to say that they bring a certain Je ne sais quoi to the whole thing, with their unpretentious and endearingly rude pieces.
Captain Charlie, one of the founding bandits, dropped anchor in Montreal, and as times can be hard for a lonely pirate, he managed to gather an extra oversea crew. Skinjackin has now become a worldwide, successful fellony and I will warmly quote Captain Vincent by concluding that its gavé bien.
Check out some of their pieces below, especially the one they kindly did for This Greedy Pig.
Bertille de Lestrade
