I was talking to someone recently about inking a project for them, and to rummage up some sample inked pages, I did a Google search for the above words “Ty Templeton ink”. It seemed so much quicker than digging through my own files. The internet is my friend.
I got what I expected, a bunch of pages from my various inking jobs over the years that people had in their collections and have scanned and put online. All fine.
But I didn’t expect to find this:
WOAH!
That’s my cover to Gotham Adventures #1…or a version of it…burned into someone’s arm with needles and pain and the oh boy, sweet glavin! The arm belongs to Craig Kandiko, and this and the other images I’m going to show you are taken from his MySpace site which you can find here.
Craig is a Batman fan. A serious Batman fan, and he’s focused the meat and flesh of his fandom on the Gotham Adventures comic title as all of his tattoos are from covers of that series. This is an ongoing project for Craig, as he’s added to the Batman Animated gallery on his legs and other arms as the years have gone by. I’ll let you go to his site to see all his tattoos, some based on Bruce Timm, and some by Bob Smith – but since this is MY blog, I’m showing you the two other tats he has with my artwork on his largest organ!
The Mr. Freeze is from Gotham Adventures #5. The Two Face is from a story I wrote, but it's drawn by Rick Burchett.
Gotham Adventures #5. Brrrrr.
This Penguin pose is from a set of T-Shirts I did with the villains as the subjects.
My Penguin is hiding there on his leg.
This isn’t the first time someone has tattooed my artwork onto their body. I’ve been sent a couple of images of a Riddler tattoo that a girl put on her lower hip a few years ago, and another one that features a JOKER I drew that ended up on someone’s shoulder….and a friend of mine has a design between her shoulder blades that I designed for her. These are all small, singular tattoos that take up just a bit of someone’s body, and I’m flattered to see someone wanted my drawing or my character on them for life. Craig is clearly the biggest Batman Adventures fan on Earth from this level of dedication.
So Craig, I salute you, and feature you on my blog. I’ll just say this, I often erase and redraw my figures while I’m working on them. Next time, I’ll realize the importance to your very skin that I get every line right!
Ty the Guy
To share post:
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Ty Templeton's ART LAND!! 
These aren’t even just rub-ons?
Cheers!
Steven G. Willis
XOWComics.com
Funny things happen when you google yourself. I was just seeing what my persona was doing on the internet. Then I saw a pic of my tattoo and didn’t recognize the website it was linked to. Once I clicked on it: “Holy Fucking Bat-Shit!” It’s Ty Templeton! You know Ty Templeton who drew the very comic book covers that I have spent thousands of dollars on.
I am so unbelievably humbled that you put me on your blog. It was a very hard decision to figure out which art I wanted to be permanently attached to me. I have to be honest, I really wasn’t a big comic book reader. I like cartoons. I grew up watching the Super Friends which later turned into a passion for Batman: The Animated Series. And I loved it when they changed the art style to The New Batman Adventures. The lines were more simplistic and bolder. To me, simple is better.
I knew I wanted to get a Batman tattoo. and there is definitely a lot of art to choose from. But when I saw the Gotham Adventures #1 cover I knew that’s what I wanted. I immediately saw the geometry and noticed that Robin’s basic shape was a triangle. And that if you flip Batman, Robin would perfectly fit. Now no disrespect to Mr Templeton, but I didn’t like how Batman was holding his cape. So my tattoo artist drew the other arm and the cape.
Since then I have moved onto my lower left leg. My two older daughters are named Harley Quinn and Ivy. So what started as Tribute tattoos to my daughters, turned into an entire knee high tattoo sock. Your covers were perfect. They had classic poses and colors. Thank god I am Irish with super white skin, because the colors in my tattoos stays bright throughout the years.
I could go on and on but this is YOUR blog. I’ll just let my tattoos speak for themselves. Thank you for art that I plagiarized on my skin.
I will soon be working on a complete arm sleeve that will add onto the Gotham Adventures #1 piece. I was thinking of doing the artwork of Batman throughout history as he has been drawn or animated by the various artists who have evolved the artstyles. Be happy in knowing yours was the fist in the project.
Thank You Again!
Respectfully,
Craig Kandiko