Think Ink!: A Brief History of Tattoos on the Catwalk Inline
Photo: Courtesy of Opening Ceremony1/10A sheer, faintly tribal shirt worn by Graça Fisher at Martin Margiela’s Spring 1989 debut—and reissued as part of the house’s H&M collaboration more than two decades later.
Photo: Condé Nast Archive2/10Stella Tennant and a skeleton stalk the runway at Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 1994.
Photo: Imaxtree3/10Gaultier returns to the theme again at his Spring 2008 couture outing with lush, mermaid-themed underlays that nodded to traditional Japanese tattooing styles.
Photo: Gianni Pucci / GoRunway.com4/10Where could a little ink come as a greater surprise than at Chanel? The storied house debuted delicate bracelet and garter styles at its Spring 2009 show (ultimately made commercially available and hotly snapped up).
Photo: Kessler Studio5/10Rodarte’s Spring 2008 Amazons, in all of their tattered glory, sported graphic, inky black designs down their arms.
Photos: Gianni Pucci / GoRunway.com6/10Marc Jacobs’s go-to tattoo artist, Scott Campbell, lent his talents to both the leather goods and the lads at Louis Vuitton’s Spring 2011 menswear show: Catwalkers carried bags bearing his work and wore elaborate temporary ink of Campbell’s own creation.
Photo: Gianni Pucci / Indigitalimages.com7/10O.G. tattoo icon Sailor Jerry was the subject of a sumptuous homage at Maison Margiela Spring 2014 couture.
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com8/10Rei Kawakubo recruited ink maestro JK5 to collaborate on the florid, tat-inspired pieces seen at Comme des Garçons’s Fall ’15 menswear show.
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com9/10A seafaring chest piece for the noncommittal guy in your life, at the most recent Alexander McQueen men’s outing.
Photo: Monica Feudi / feudiguaineri.com10/10The Catens go big or go home, so when they opted for trompe l’oeil underpinnings for Dsquared² Fall 2015, they were of the Technicolor, full-throttle variety.
