Land of Giants

The body is a tattoo artist’s canvas, so using flat ol’ billboards to promote the Discovery Channel’s London Ink series just didn’t seem right. But then London-based agencies Mother London and Asylum created bodies of billboard-sized proportions, and celebrity tattoo artist Louis Malloy suddenly had the perfect way to show his work. “In the end a billboard is always just a billboard so there’s no sense of excitement of discovery in seeing one,” said Mother London’s Erik Enberg and Laurence Thomson.

Originally, the plan was to decorate giant body parts with mural-sized tattoos, but once Asylum got involved, the body parts morphed into complete, head-turning people. Two statues, known as The Girl and The Swimmer, were positioned in Victoria Station and Potter’s Field near the Tower Bridge, respectively. Nearly two million people saw The Girl everyday, her giant head crammed into a photo booth. The Swimmer, which had passersby taking pictures within minutes of its installation, had to be installed in the opposite way than intended to get the best PR shot. Both statues were up for two weeks, with The Swimmer making an encore appearance in Greenwich Park for 10 more days. There was a push to leave the statues up permanently, but both have found homes at the Discovery Channel’s building in West London.