Topps Monster Tatoos/Monster Tattoos!

[Hepcat]

Topps released a Monster Tatoo set in 1962. The tattoos were printed on the inside of this bubble gum wrapper:




The drawings appear to have been rendered by the legendary Jack Davis:




Here's a look at several dozen of the tattoos from the Topps Archives courtesy of de-mented Eric:








Topps then re-issued these tattoos in 1974-75 on the inside of these four wrappers:

 








The re-issued tattoos differ in three ways:

1. The ones issued in 1962 are not numbered while the ones issued in 1974-75 have a number as well as an A or B series designation:




2. The ones issued in 1962 are coloured with darker inks with purple being a popular colour. The ones from 1974-75 feature lighter pastel colouring.


3. Finally, it seems that for the 1974-75 re-issue the Topps graphics department employed white-out to remove details from Davis' original drawings thus simplifying them and making them less likely to smudge/smear during the printing process. The original pictures from 1962 are in the top row while the simplified artwork is in the bottom row below:




Multifold lines and inking can be seen to have been removed from the old hag's hair in particular.

Lonnie Cummins has done a lot of research on these tattoos including a great job cataloguing the two issues:

1962 "Monster Tatoos" visual checklist... to make things simpler, I matched the first 60 tatoos to the 1974 numbering, although they aren't actually numbered of course. Just missing two images from the 1962 issues (used 1974/1975 images in checklist)...







1974/1975 "Monster Tattoos"...

However many of these tattoos there are, they're a delight to non-sport card collectors, monster enthusiasts and Jack Davis fans alike. Bubble gum and tattoos are after all a very tough combo to beat.

[Sir Masksalot]

I love the artwork on these. Thanks for all the pics and research,
Hepcat, Mr Cummins, and "de-mented Eric".

[marsattacks666]

So awesome