Aleksy Marcinow's tattooed Gumpert Apollo on the 2014 Gumball Rally

Aleksy Marcinow's tattooed Gumpert Apollo on the 2014 Gumball Rally

For some people, there's nothing better than seeing an inked guy or gal walking down the street. To them, the body is a canvas, ready to accept the work of a needle-wielding artisan in exchange for a fistful of cash and a few hours of pain. But how about a tattooed car?

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Tattoo artist Aleksy Marcinow made the jump from skin to steel at the London launch of this year's Gumball 3000 Rally. Or rather, carbon fiber--as Aleksy's canvas was a Gumpert Apollo supercar. German the Gumpert may be, but Marcinow took inspiration from Japanese art and traditional irezumi tattooing on his two-week project.

Aleksy Marcinow's tattooed Gumpert Apollo on the 2014 Gumball Rally

Aleksy Marcinow's tattooed Gumpert Apollo on the 2014 Gumball Rally

The car was commissioned by Elo, London Motor Museum owner and founder.

Elo explains that Aleksy used the same technique to tattoo the car as he would a body, though it's still not quite clear what this means.

As Aleksy's video shows, there's more than a little traditional car decoration in there, in the form of masking and painting.

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Call us old-fashioned, but we reckon car tattooing has been around for decades--it's called pinstriping, and has been a near-essential part of any hot-rod build since hot-rodding existed. It's not like there aren't modern-day equivalents either--vinyl wrapping, anyone? Aleksy's work is clearly impressive, but as far as tattooing goes we'll stick to it on our guys and gals, thanks...

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