A tattoo artist working for the Boston Tattoo Company is roughly midway through a project which has seen her tattooing the 151 original Pokémon on her customers.
The tattoos (which were all done with the customers’ consent, of course) have seen the likes of Lickitung, Bulbasaur and Golbat etched onto the skin of BTC’s patrons by Alicia Thomas, and after beginning the project in August, she’s nearing her goal of having successfully tattooed all of the original pocket monsters featured in the classic Game Boy game.
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Speaking to Vice, Thomas said: “I’ve been calling it “Help Me Catch Them All,” that kind of thing. It started when I was tattooing one of my regulars. We were about the same age, talking about our childhoods. We were both pretty nerdy. We were just talking about growing up with Pokémon, and we made a joke that “Oh, you should tattoo all of them,” and then we kind of laughed, and then we looked at each other and said, “No, this should actually be a thing.” I’m definitely a goal-oriented person so I figured it would be a fun project to start. I’ve seen someone try to tattoo Pokémon once in a while, but I don’t often see, from beginning to end, to tattoo every Pokémon. I’ve [done] about 125, 130, out of the 151 original.”
Thomas hopes to throw a “Poké Party” for those she has tattooed, in which all of those who have agreed to take part in the project can meet each other. While Thomas doesn’t have a Pokémon tattoo, she has said that when the project is finally concluded she plans to get one of Bulbasaur and a Poké Ball, to signify that she finally did Catch ‘Em All.
The most heavily requested Pokémon that Thomas has received have been Pikachu (of course), though oddly it was Scyther that was the first Pokémon she was asked to tattoo, followed by Bulbasaur and then Gengar.
The remaining Pokémon include the likes of Diglett, Moltres, Jolteon and (perhaps inevitably) Jynx, which suffice to say would be quite the awkward tattoo to pull off.
It remains to be seen when Thomas will conclude her quest, but at least it appears to be a less arduous task than catching the Pokémon in the actual game, and it also comes with a free party at the end of it.
