Celebrity Tattoo Artist Bang Bang Shares His Green Routine

Whether or not you are captivated with ink, or in the event you keep knowledgeable on celeb gossip, you are seemingly conversant in tattoo artist, Bang Bang — aka Keith McCurdy. He is inked numerous massive names, from LeBron James, to Rihanna, to Kylie Jenner, and whereas he is extremely captivated with tattooing, Bang Bang can be passionate concerning the planet. Final week, he teamed up with plant-based meals firm, Lightlife, to “clear up” folks’s scorching canine tattoos, freed from cost, in honor of the vegan model’s new “clear” recipe.

On the occasion, Bang Bang additionally took a while to additionally share his “Inexperienced Routine” with Inexperienced Issues to indicate followers and fellow artists how he tries to remain sustainable in a notoriously not-so-sustainable tattoo trade.

Lightlife’s newest pop-up occasion, which was held at Bang Bang’s SoHo tattoo store on Friday, June 18, invited anybody with scorching canine tattoos to get a free touch-up from the famend tattoo artist, whereas one fortunate individual additionally received a free unique design by Bang Bang himself. Along with having fun with free Good Canines which have been being served on a grill exterior, the standard artist, enterprise proprietor, and pop totally loved the problem of designing and touching up vegan hotdog tats.

“One of many issues I am most captivated with is repairing tattoos,” Bang Bang tells me within the basement of the stylish SoHo tattoo studio that he designed himself. “Redoing tattoos is certainly one of my favourite issues… I’ve simply had enjoyable with it. What actually spoke to me was there was a problem on this for me… Like, how do I visualize a veggie canine? A Good Canine? As an artist, problem accepted! I obtained to make a bunch of actually enjoyable designs, with an incredible workforce of individuals. “

And clearly, he is an enormous fan of the plant-based ‘canine themselves.

“It is so humorous — my spouse introduced dwelling six completely different scorching canine and certainly one of them was the Lightlife scorching canine and he or she had no thought I used to be doing this mission. So, the primary time she ever introduced it dwelling was two weeks in the past, it was actually nice. I am keto and we do not have buns, so I am truly excited to style the total expertise,” he laughs.

To be taught extra about how the well-being of planet earth influences Bang Bang’s work as one of the crucial well-known tattoo artists within the U.S., we requested him to share his Inexperienced Routine with Inexperienced Issues.

This interview has been edited and condensed for size and readability.

GREEN MATTERS: Why is defending the planet essential to you?

BANG BANG: I actually love Earth. I’m rather more in contact with nature in my private life now that I’m older. I’m a man who spends an hour photographing little crabs that come out of holes within the sand they usually come out and I’m going ‘boo!’ they usually run away. I do that on my own, I am 35, and that’s what makes me blissful. Issues the world offers me I respect, so I perceive I’ve to provide again to it. A lot of my job is to make folks blissful… and our planet is borrowed from our youngsters. I’ve youngsters, I respect that. 

GM: What’s one situation you see relating to sustainability within the tattoo trade?

BB: In some ways tattooing has turn out to be much less sustainable. We’re utilizing plastics extra as a result of it’s “safer” than cleansing instruments. So for security, tattooing usually has moved in direction of a much less sustainable technique. There are corporations creating sustainable cornstarch plastics, but it surely’s not at some extent but the place it’s secure to make use of for tattooing. We’re testing all of it, we’re researching all of it, and we’ve got biodegradable plastic however actually that time period is somewhat [pauses]… one thing can “biodegrade” in 90 years. I don’t wish to make a bunch of claims that we modified the trade — we’re attempting to, and we’re making the hassle. It is an unlimited effort to alter an trade. For ourselves, we attempt to buy from corporations that we all know are utilizing sustainable strategies and are moral.

GM: What’s one thing you’ve got performed to make your apply extra sustainable?

BB: We as an organization attempt to do all the things we are able to to make use of sustainable merchandise as a lot as potential. I’ve been going to packaging conventions for years to grasp chemical compounds which can be utilized in issues like plastics, procedures used to separate this stuff in recycling vegetation, which areas of the nation are arrange for sure sorts of recycling and which are not… the pores and skin product we’re creating was packaged in aluminum, as a result of that is essentially the most recycled materials we are able to use in the meanwhile. Nobody’s ever heard me say this, but it surely’s stuff that’s truly essential to us as we create issues like merchandise in skincare, as we transfer in direction of manufacturing tattoo tools, sustainable merchandise are on the first thought in our minds. There are a variety of roadblocks although. 

Transport additionally issues — it may be recyclable or organically grown, but when it was shipped throughout the planet it was actually wasteful so that you can eat that apple. Briefly, we’ve got changed single-use disposable gadgets we used for tattooing in each space we are able to safely discover a provide chain for. Issues like buying from home suppliers as a substitute of worldwide — generally it prices somewhat extra however understanding that delivery impacts the setting, so we’re actually not saving cash by shopping for cheaper issues in the long term.

It isn’t one thing we brag about as a result of everyone seems to be sort of new at it. I don’t know if I heard that phrase earlier than I used to be an grownup. It’s not a story we articulate to clients, however we’re doing the muse work so once we make one thing in mass scale it was authentically constructed and as sustainable as it may be.

GM: What’s one piece of recommendation you’ll give a tattoo artist, in the event that they have been trying to make their apply extra sustainable?

BB: If a tattoo artist needs to be extra sustainable, figuring out what’s single-use, like plastics, luggage, and little cups — as a result of they are often sourced and extra sustainably than conventional gadgets you get in a pharmacy. Past that, [changing] the tactic wherein you utilize every product — if all the things has a single-use applicator, meaning there’s trash created for each tattoo. So if there’s a chance to purchase issues in mass, include it safely, after which use it, you may have one merchandise of waste for each thousand individual tattooed, as a substitute of a thousand single gadgets of waste. So being acutely aware of the way you order inventory in-store, and what issues have to be single use and what issues may be ordered in mass are essential.