Following a project adorning Harvey Nichols mannequins with swirling type for its Knightsbridge windows, hand-letterer Oli Frape takes us through five inspiring examples of type on the body.
Painting words on the body is certainly nothing new. I was recently at the Magnificent Obsessions show at the Barbican looking at a collection of vintage vinyl and spotted an old cover design from the Seventies with the title painted on a woman’s back. A quick Internet search brought up some great images as well – like Goldie Hawn covered in hand-painted lettering and symbols from a TV show back in the Sixties.
In these days of resurgence in hand-lettering, we letterers are relishing opportunities to apply our craft to varied surfaces again and get up and away from the desk. Here are five contemporary examples. Warning: there will be some nudity…
Mikitype
Mikihiro Yamashita is a Japanese calligrapher that has applied his beautiful calligraphic letterforms to various different surfaces, including a beautiful pair of customised shoes, alongside designing typefaces and more traditional media. He also likes to draw on people, in a measured, formal way, in keeping with his practice in simple colours. Beautiful.
Martin Schmetzer and Tyrsa
The 805 Million Names project involved letterers Martin Schmetzer and Tyrsa collaborating together with the World Food Organisation. They hand-lettered the names of fifty people currently suffering from hunger around the world, which were then turned into temporary tattoos and applied onto footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s torso before a match. He scored in the second minute of the game and promptly whipped off his shirt to reveal the names. Each name is beautifully drawn and highly crafted – you’d happily have one as a real tattoo.
Gemma O’Brien
Gemma’s body lettering differs from the others selected here in that she used her own body as the canvas rather than drawing on someone else’s. She made a film of herself gradually filling almost all of her visible skin whilst having a wander around the city called Write Here, Right Now. After around eight hours this is how she ended up. You have to admire the commitment to the piece. I bet washing it all off was nightmare.
Alison Carmichael
Alison Carmichael comes swiftly to mind when exploring lettering and the body. Not only has she marketed herself with a beautifully lettered example of a four-letter word everyone hates (clue, it’s slang for a female body part) but she’s also worked on several projects writing on skin. In this case the lettering is painted straight onto the stomach of a pregnant woman. I love the variety in lettering treatments Alison uses here, and it’s really worth looking at the behind the scenes photos online to get a real sense of how great the hand-lettering is.
Pokras Lampas
I’d be surprised if most of you haven’t seen this before – I’ve been sent links to this many times by different people – and you can see why: a beautiful woman covered in ‘calligrafitti’. Titillation aside, I really love Pokras Lampas’ work, it’s more expressive than some of the others featured here and has all those drips and paint splashes that show it’s hand-lettered.
