Pirelli opened their new flagship store, the Pzero in Corso Venezia in Milan, and one of the cult objects on display was the Holy Trinity project, that included a tattooed tire created by renowned tattoo artist Scott Cambell.
Campbell engraved a Pirelli Diablo Rosso II tire treads using a gouge, with an eye, heart and skull and the tire was mounted on a special Pirelli Ducati Diavel edition, also on display at the Pirelli store.
The same design elements are also found on the inside of a special edition Dainese jacket that shows sacred and profane icons including St Christopher, the patron saint of motorcyclists.
“The birth of this operation took place last December in Moscow, at the launch of the Pirelli calendar.
Renato Montagner, creative director of Pirelli PZero, suggested that I tattoo a tyre, a bike and a jacket.
I agreed straightaway and with enthusiasm as these three elements are my world which revolves around drawing and fast pace.
I stayed up a whole night to study how and what to engrave on the rubber, one of the few materials I’ve never worked with before.
To make the prototype I worked as a craftsman, like a tailor cutting and stitching.
Unfortunately the spread of computers and the mouse is wiping out the art of manual work”, said Campbell.
“In Campbell’s romantic engineering”, Montagner claimed, “we found many affinities with the Pirelli culture.
The result of the Holy Trinity project iconises to perfection the combination of technique and passion of the P Lunga, with the mark of a new tyrography”.