Tagged the “World’s First Tattooed Motorcycle”, this creation is by the award winning Game Over Cycles of Poland, called The Recidivist. Based on the Harley-Davidson Softail model, the bike was unveiled in September 2014 but the fuly tattooed side car was built in 2017 and will have its world premiere at the 77th Annual Sturgis® Motorcycle Rally™.
The Recidivist is a machine inspired by the art of permanent body adornment. Motorbikes are commonly adorned with tattoo motifs using an airbrush, however the uniqueness of The Recidivist lies in the fact that the bike’s entire construction is covered in tattooed skin branded directly onto the bike’s tires, tanks, seat, rear fender, lamp and many other smaller elements. Light coloured cow hide leather – similar to the colour of human skin – is engineered onto the bike.
The motorcycle’s construction include elements that draw from the look of tattoo machines. All of these parts are fully operational elements of bike’s construction, and the mechanisms of these elements operate in the same way as they do in the original tattoo machines:
- bike’s front suspension has the look of a traditional coil tattoo machine
- the exhaust pipe looks exactly like a modern tattoo machine, including the tattooing needles which when you start the bike, move exactly as they do when the tattoo machine applies ink under skin
Further more, the machine’s design is based on a number of technical solutions drawing from the turbulent lifestyles of post-war bikers.
- the lever starting the bike has a shape of a bomb detonator lever.
- the rear light indicators look like brass knuckle-dusters
- front wheel calliper brakes have the appearance of handcuffs
- front clutch and brake handles are formed in the shape of “butterfly” knives
- the break pump lever is shaped in the form of a section sign.
