Toil Girls on Miami Ink!!
On November 6th of 2007 the popular reality show Miami Ink on TLC Network aired an episode entitled "No Regrets". The show featured Toil Girls. Three of them! It all started when I received an email from one of Miami Ink's producers Martin Garcia. He informed me that a woman was interested in coming into the famous Florida tattoo parlor and having one of their artists render a big, beatiful woman over her shoulder blade. He told me she wanted to bring in prints of three of my Toil girls as reference material for the tattoo artist, as inspiration as well as a guide. The three Toil cuties she presented Miami inkster Chris Nunez as reference for her tattoo were Smilin' Girl, USA Girl and Sauce. And as you can see... Chris went heavy on the Sauce.
As far as tattoo art goes, I can honestly say I've seen better. Since I'm not too familiar with the show, this may be to the extent of that particular artist's skills. It's too bad producer Martin didn't contact me about designing and sketching the girl. It does perplex me that artist Chris Nunez couldn't find a more natural position to put the girl's hands after he removed the spoon and pot from them that was in the original drawing. Maybe placing them on her hips or behind her hair or anything. I personally think he would have been better off tracing over the actual print that was presented to him. At least he would have gotten the proportions a bit more accurate.
With all of my grousing aside, it was a great thrill to see my art play a role in this reality show revolution that's overpowered our television airwaves. It was also exciting getting an email from Miss Smilin' Eyes herself telling me how blown away she was to unexpectedly see her portrait blazing across her TV screen. But more importantly, the producers of Miami Ink took the initiative of placing voluptuous pin-up queens right in the eye of mainstream U.S.A. Whatever their motivation was for doing so, the show helped in many ways to prove to a size-paranoid world that beauty comes in abundance. And for your viewing pleasure here's the actual and entire episode. Enjoy.
