Banana Tattooist Turns Fruits into Awesome Artworks

Multimedia artist Phil Hansen uses a technique similar to pointillism to turn ripe bananas into organic canvases, recreating some of history’s most famous artworks.

If this offbeat art doesn’t make you go bananas, I don’t know what will. Hansen’s works are just so detailed it’s hard to believe all he uses to create them is a common pushpin and the banana’s natural oxidation process. The talented artist just punctures the peel repeatedly with the pushpin and the banana, and as the the banana browns, his intricate designs are revealed. Phil Hansen is currently promoting his book, Tattoo a Banana: And Other Ways to Turn Anything and Everything into Art, due next month. In it, he explains how to create art from anything at hand – – like a piece of toast, your own fingerprints, or a stack of marshmallows – using offbeat techniques.

Edgar Degas’ dancers

Phil Hansen isn’t the first to use the banana’s oxidation process into an artistic technique. Last year, we featured Australian artist Jun Gil Park, who uses a toothpick to carve his designs into the banana peel.

 The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

 Birth of Venus by Andro Botticelli

 Skull with Burning Cigarette by Vincent van Gogh

via Flavorwire