Let’s imagine you have a car, more precisely - a Lexus. You’ve decided to follow the trend and get a brand new UX crossover in white. Let’s admit it - it looks fine but it’s not special. Don’t have any ideas on how to make it look more personalized? Ask Lexus, they have the answer.
The Japanese manufacturer has just released the story of what it describes as a tattooed UX. In fact, the company claims this is the world’s first tattooed car and apparently that’s important for some reason. Nevertheless, it’s cool.
Gallery: Tattooed Lexus UX
Lexus says the one-off creation is inspired by the “fine craftsmanship and traditional Japanese artistry” and has been designed and created by leading London tattoo artist Claudia De Sabe and her husband Yutaro. The couple got a boring white UX as a canvas and a Dremel drill tool in place of a fine tattooing needle. The main visual motif is the so-called koi coming from traditional Japanese art.
“When you tattoo a person, you have to think about the muscles and tissue beneath the skin. With the car it was about the way the bodywork changes shape over the framework,” Claudia explains.
But Is It Really The First?
It all sounds like an easy job, right? But it isn’t - it took Claudia more than six months from the initial drawings to complete the project with the actual tattooing requiring five eight-hour days of intensive work. The biggest challenge for the artist was the fact that, unlike humans, you can’t move the car into a comfortable position for drawing. Also, the vibration of the drill is obviously physically demanding.
“The best thing about tattooing the Lexus UX, and the reason why this car was ideal for the project, is its streamlined shape. Everything from the lines on the side of the body to the shape of the windows, everything is just so dynamic and beautiful. It was a perfect fit for the design and the concept itself,” Claudia adds.
Source: Lexus
LEXUS UNVEILS THE WORLD’S FIRST TATTOOED CAR
In a celebration of fine craftsmanship and traditional Japanese artistry, Lexus has commissioned the world’s first tattooed car. This strictly one-of-a-kind interpretation of the UX compact SUV has been designed and created by leading London tattoo artist Claudia De Sabe.
Using a pure white car as her “canvas” and a Dremel drill tool in place of a fine tattooing needle, Claudia produced a sweeping design featuring koi carp along the entire length of the vehicle. The koi is a motif familiar from traditional Japanese art, representing qualities of good fortune and perseverance.
Lexus has created a short film which goes behind the scenes to reveal how the tattooed car was made. It can be viewed here: Tattooed Car – how it was done.
Claudia used the Dremel tool to drill away the surface paint and expose the metal underneath to create the complex pattern, and then applied five litres of high-quality car paint by hand to bring out the details. As a finishing touch, she used gold leaf to create highlights and give the design a stronger 3D effect, before the whole vehicle was given a protective lacquer coating so that it can be driven on the road.
The process took six months to complete from the initial drawings, with the “tattooing” accomplished over five eight-hour days of intensive work. It was physically demanding, with the vibration of the drill and working with an object that, unlike a human customer, couldn’t be moved into a comfortable position as the design progressed. Where any small slips in a human tattoo can quite easily be worked or coloured into the pattern, the “engraving” with the drill required absolute precision.
The tattooed UX doesn’t have a price tag, but it’s estimated the bespoke work would cost upwards of £120,000.
It was the first time Claudia had applied her skills to metal rather than human skin and she found both similarities and new challenges in the unique commission.
“When you tattoo a person, you have to think about the muscles and tissue beneath the skin. With the car it was about the way the bodywork changes shape over the framework,” said Claudia, who was assisted in her work by her Japanese-born husband Yutaro.
“‘The best thing about tattooing the Lexus UX, and the reason why this car was ideal for the project, is its streamlined shape. Everything from the lines on the side of the body to the shape of the windows, everything is just so dynamic and beautiful. It was a perfect fit for the design and the concept itself,” said Claudia, a co-founder of the Red Point tattoo studio in Islington.
The project stands as a tribute to the takumi craftsmanship that is applied to every Lexus, witnessed in design details and flawless finishes achieved with human skills perfected through years of dedicated training. Similarly, Lexus embraces traditional Japanese aesthetics in its vehicle designs, in elements such as the UX’s washi paper-grain cabin trims and the seamless merging of the interior and exterior through the front screen, echoing the engawa architectural features of Japanese homes.