Justin Bieber loves a tattoo. This we know. At the last count, he has eight. But did you know the singer has also tried his hand at inking someone else?
Last June, the singer stopped by the New York salon of celebrity ink artist Bang Bang and was offered the chance to tattoo the tattooist.
In a just released video of Bieber’s first ever session as a tattoo artist , he is seen concentrating hard as he traces his alter-ego — cartoon mouse “Swaggy” — on Bang Bang’s left leg along with the word itself.
With Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice” blasting in the background, there was very little talking between the two men during the session, but, at one point, Bang Bang asked :
“How is it? Easy right?”
To which Bieber replies: “Yeah man.”
Bang Bang, whose real name is Keith McCurdy, is the go-to tattooist for stars such as Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Chris Brown, and Katy Perry, to name a few. His signature party trick is to ask celebrities he’s worked on to return the favor and tattoo him.
McCurdy, seemed delighted with his new Bieber-applied tattoo, later tweeting the pop star: “Thx for my tat bro!”
Bieber, who seems fascinated by the process of tattooing, has quite a collection of his own. A “Jesus” on one leg, the Japanese Kanji symbol for music, an owl, a crown, the Greek symbol Chi, praying hands with added roses, the name of his Believe album, the Hebrew word for Jesus on his rib cage, and a bird that was inked onto his hip when he was just 16.
Many reports are currently headlining that Bieber could personally be fined up to $2000 for illegally tattooing Bang Bang.
However, this is unlikely.
In 2009, when Rihanna tattooed McCurdy and two other people with the letter ‘R,’ the New York Health Department fined Bang Bang’s salon East Side Ink for “operating with an unlicensed tattoo artist on site” — not Rihanna.
Bieber has come under fire recently for a series of dramatic incidents on tour, including a row with a paparazzo, a late stage show in London, and attempting to enter Germany with his new pet monkey but without the proper documents, and latterly battery allegations — to name just a few.
However, he looks as cool as a cucumber moonlighting as an ink artist.
Tattoo Therapy?
[ Image via Featureflash / Shutterstock.com ]