Sketchy Tank is both a person and a clothing brand. The term “Sketchy Tank” came from a file on Sketchy’s computer that he used to store all the twisted, funny, NSFW, weird, and wild photos, videos, and gifs that he found while browsing the darkest realms of the internet.
As it says on, Sketchy Tank’s bio, “These images were not disturbing like photos of outrageous porn or death and dismemberment but more like hideous tattoos, super trashy people doing trashy things, mixed with skateboarding, surfing and low brow art and design.” I saw most of these photos cause I’ve been a fan of Sketchy Tank for long enough that I actually had some of these images emailed to me directly—for better or for worse. Once the “Sketchy Tank” file got filled with thousands of sketchy images, it was time to unleash.
“Sketchy Tank is NOT an action sports brand and it’s NOT street wear, it’s for beer drinkers, pot smokers, tattoo enthusiasts and fun havers! It’s for people who don’t take things seriously and aren’t trying to be cool. My goal is to disturb the comfortable, and comfort the disturbed one graphic at a time.”
Sketchytank.com started as a tumblr-style photo blog that every once in a while featured original art by Sketchy Tank himself. Enough people started inquiring about the art that Sketchy Tank started printing and selling T-shirts featuring his own brand of off kilter art—and the shit took off like wildfire. Sketchy Tank is not a normal brand, but it has become a very popular brand for fringe dwellers, and there are a lot of fringe dwellers out there! Sketchy Tank has grown in to a multi-million dollar sketchy empire through direct sales from Sketchytank.com as well as national store chains like Zumiez. Sketchy Tank has also had an incredible run of collaborations with big and small brands including Vans, WeedMaps, Ride Snowboards, SuperBrand, Creature Skateboards, KREW, and many more.
Here’s a gallery of Sketchy Tank’s Greatest Hits.
- Good Times, Bad Friends: We all have good times with our “bad friends” This is Sketchy Tank’s best selling graphic to date.
- Palm: Another Sketchy Tank greatest hit that’s gone from t-shirt design, to ceramic mug, to popular tattoo.
- Creature Skateboards: Sketchy Tank and Creature skateboards, a match made in hell (and that’s a good thing), these boards feature exclusive Sketchy Art that glows in the dark!
- Vans: You know you’re doing something right when Vans hits you up for a collab, these shoes went mental, and word is there’s more to come.
- Gooey Famous People: Before the clothing line was really popping, Sketchy Tank created a line of posters featuring “gooey” celebs like David Bowie, Biggie, TuPac, the Pope, and yes, Chris Coté (See Monday M.A.S.S. art)
- SuperBrand: SuperBrand and Sketchy Tank collaborated on a series of board graphics and clothes, all awesome.
- Steve Nazar: Another epic collab feature Sketchy Tank teaming up with the legendary Steve Nazar for a banger of a T-Shirt, this rules so hard.
- TransWorld SKATEboarding: For an artist, getting a “Brain Floss” in TransWorld SKATEboarding is pretty much a dream come true. Sketchy Tank made full use of his with art like this.
- Ride: The Ride Snowboards X Sketchy Tank graphic series was the ultimate snow-banger, one of those boards that would look as good hanging on your wall as it would ripping down a mountain.
- I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: Taking the classic Warren Zevon lyric to the next level. Coffee and skulls—yes, please!
Go to sketchytank.com to get some of this radness for yourself and follow @sketchy_tank on InstaGram for added awesomeness.
YEW!