The Von Dutch energy drink was a nice place to stop—but rust never sleeps with Christian Audigier at work. For his next number, the ex-Von Dutch vice president has “revived” the career of legendary San Francisco tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy—who, unlike Dutch, isn't lucky enough to be dead or reasonably obscure yet.
Poor Hardy—at least the tattoo studio he started, Tattoo City, gets a link on www.donedhardy.com. Audigier is doing for him what he did for Dutch—seeing to it that examples of the inkslinger's traditional tattoo flash get plastered across the heaving bosoms of Britney Spears, Eva Longoria and Nick Carter in T-shirt form; putting Hardy's flash on sneakers, jackets, hoodies, energy drinks, and motorcycles that are just a reiteration of what West Coast Choppers was doing five years ago.
“Ed Hardy signature custom bikes found a way to bring James Dean back to life . . . ,” the website says, glossing over the fact that Dean'd be 75 next month; that if he were alive, he'd probably be pitching some liver pill—not a chopper—and that tattoos make Mike Ness cry. Because everyone has them.
Who's next for Audigier? Mickey Rourke? Nick Nolte? Sharon Stone.
