Someone got a tattoo of a Teddy and the Yeti character

I was talking to my friend Karin Rindevall a few days ago, and she passed on a link to something I never really expected to see - it appears that someone has decided to mark his body with some Teddy and the Yeti artwork for the rest of his life.

Back in 2010-ish, I made a set of (very popular) Teddy and the Yeti trading cards. The original set contained 18 cards, though I've added a few to it in the intervening years. One of the last cards was of a character from the cover of Teddy and the Yeti #3, which I named "The Space God". It was an obvious homage to a Jack Kirby Celestial-like creation, and it was originally designed by Tom Scioli in his Kirby style when he drew the cover. Anyway, I naturally liked the design, and even though I've never published an actual sequential story with the Space God (there's a script), the character got a card, and Karin drew it. The art is above.

And here are some further shots of the tattoo. The new artist made some changes, flipping the image around and giving the character a can of spray paint, but the overall image is, well, pretty clearly based on the original card art. It's part of a larger space scene that goes down the person's arm, including other more recognizable characters like Earthworm Jim and Bender from Futurama.

The picture was on a Facebook page for a tattoo parlor in Australia, of all places, apparently run by an artist named Steve Yoda. This was the info Facebook had for me. I suppose I could send the shop a message to try and get more info if I'm ever up late at night pondering the meaning of the universe.

This is not to say that I'm upset about having the image used without my knowledge - I'm honestly just curious to learn how the person found the image in the first place. The Space God is a pretty obscure character by any definition, and I'm a little surprised that Teddy and the Yeti, even with the marvels of the Internet(s), has ever filtered into Australia at all. It's a pretty cool image and I hope that everyone involved is happy with it - the guy has to live with it forever now. That's pretty crazy!