Ben’s tatts capture his love of comic book superheroes and villains. Photo: Chris Roe.
Ben Kosic is a hard dude to miss.
If you head into Wagga’s JB Hi-Fi, he’s the big guy with the shaved head and an impressive array of comic book tattoos.
“Pretty much every week, or sometimes every day, someone will comment like – ‘sick tattoos mate, where’d you get them done’?” he says with a smile.
“I’ve got a right arm sleeve for DC (Detective Comics) and it’s my two favourites – Shazam and Black Adam – and then my left one is going to be a full Marvel [comics] sleeve of pretty much all the villains.”
Unbelievably, Ben was a ‘cleanskin’ (no tattoos) up until four years ago.
Prompted by his friend, tattoo artist Hayden Rams, Ben decided to go all-in and celebrate his love of comics.
“I just showed him a few of the favourite Marvel and DC comic panels and said – see what you can do with this,” he explains.
“I said, ‘See if you can turn it into a full page rather than just like just a chaotic mess on the arm’ – and he sent me a draft of what it would look like across the full sleeve on both arms.”
Once they had agreed on a plan, Hayden got to work on the integrated designs with Ben, sitting through a series of 10-hour sessions over a period of months.
“It took about 40 hours for the first arm and then 30 hours for the second arm,” he says.
Ben also started covering one leg but says it was getting painful and expensive.
“The shins are probably the worst part out of any of the tattoos that I’ve done and after that the ankle,” he grimaces.
Once the signature mark of sailors and bikies, tattoos have boomed into mainstream popularity over recent decades with 1 in 4 Australians now sporting ink.
According to Ashley Fell from McCrindle Research, media and celebrities are driving the trend.
“The fact that social media regularly shows celebrities, movie stars and sports people with tattoos is helping to change consumer attitudes and behaviour towards tattoos and how they are perceived,” she says.
Hayden Rams is making a name for himself in the tattoo scene with his Manga and Comic style body art. Photo: Chris Roe
Hayden Rams represents this change in tattoo culture and is one of a new breed of artists.
Quietly spoken and casually dressed in a beanie, grey hoodie and long shorts, he says it was his love of drawing and a desire to turn his art into a job that got him into the game.
“I’m just a big nerd, I’ve grown up reading comics, manga, and playing video games,” he says with a smile.
“I’m basically a shut-in.”
Based at Wagga Body Art, Hayden now specialises in bright, highly detailed pop culture tattoos featuring superheroes and Japanese-style manga and anime characters.
“I always liked to just play games and draw and then as soon as I got my foot in the tattooing world that’s what I’ve always wanted to be doing with it,” he explains.
“I’m at the point now where I can pretty much be doing anime and video game tattoos all day, every day.”
Hayden has steadily made a name for himself in the tattoo world and is in demand, but says the work he did with Ben was a turning point.
“He was probably one of the first few clients that let me go wild with the comic style stuff,” he says.
“His tattoos were definitely one of the cornerstones in my career where I started turning everything around and leaning more into that style.
“It creates momentum and a lot of other people will be wanting that style and they see that you can do it well.”
Ben agrees that he’s become a walking advertisement for his mate’s art – but it was still a major investment.
“I’ve probably spent, maybe $20-thousand to $22-thousand on the tattoos so far, and that’s at mates’ rates!” he laughs.
“If I was a good friend I probably would have paid full price but you’ve got to take advantage.
“But I think Hayden’s probably going to get way more customers from these.”
You can check out Wagga Body Art here or visit Hayden Rams’ Instagram.
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