All around Australia, Patricia Piccinini has been approached by people who are rolling up a sleeve, tugging at a trouser leg, or even lifting their T-shirt. They’re revealing their tattoos of the Skywhales, hot air balloon creatures Piccinini dreamed up more than a decade ago when imagining what whales might look like if they’d evolved to live in the air.
“There are lots of great Skywhale tattoos. I love them,” says Piccinini, who has become one of Australia’s most renowned artists with her lifelike sculptures of fantastical animals. “For the Skywhales to become part of someone’s narrative … It’s a real gift to me.”
