A realistic game experience is not just about environment – it’s also about characters. For Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, the production team decided on raising the bar for character customization through a maybe unlikely focus: tattoos.
During the development of The Division 2, the production team wanted to take a more authentic approach to parts of the game’s character customization, namely the tattoos the player can choose for their in-game character. To get the right feeling, they decided to approach the tattoo artists from the local tattoo parlor One Floor Down.
“I’m a massive fan of the game – I was actually one of the play testers for The Division and I played it to bits when it was released. When we were asked to do this collaboration, I felt completely ecstatic. Now I can make all my friends have my designs in the game,” says Hjalmar Ekberg Hammenskog, one of the tattoo artists involved in the collaboration.
The idea of collaborating with real tattoo artists for the game originally came from a discussion between Lead Environment Artist Adam Olsson, Associate Producer Johan Oldbring, and Art Director Benedikt Podlesnigg on how to further build The Division’s universe and how to create an authentic experience for the players.
“We wanted to create designs that look real because they are real,” explains Adam Olsson. “We have a history of working outside of the box – in The Division we worked with real graffiti artists for example. We believe that it’s important to trust the experts and go beyond what our Game Artists can do.”
Benedikt adds:
“Having these talented tattoo artists design the tattoos have given us a better variety of style. Sometimes, tattoos in games are lacking in authenticity, and without this collaboration we would never have ended up with the more quirky tattoos which makes it all feel real.”
Unique designs and in-game brands
Echoing Benedikt and Adam’s sentiment about authenticity, tattoo artist Mike McGlashan brings up some things that makes a tattoo feel unreal.
“Most of the time, there simply aren’t enough options. And the options you have are either full sleeves or tribals, which can feel a bit outdated. I often get the feeling that it never really looks like a tattoo, but rather like body paint,” he says to everyone’s agreement.
The artists were given some directions on the designs related to the game’s different factions, in-game brands, and pop culture references that only exist in the universe. But they were also asked to create unique designs with their own styles, which proved to be both fun and challenging.
“One of the greatest challenges I faced was to not second guess everything I was doing – I mean, millions of people will click through our designs, and it’s hard to not think about that while drawing! We are also used to doing everything our own way, and this collaboration forced us out of our comfort zones a bit.” says Mike.
Simon Huhtala agrees:
“It was all very new to us, but a really good thing to experience.”
“They look like tattoos do!”
Together with the Massive team, the tattoo artists get a close look at their works before the game launches, and once they see the designs in game, their feelings cannot be contained.
“Oh my Gosh, this is so cool! They look like tattoos do!” shouts Philip as one of his designs is placed on the characters neck.
The artists are also given the opportunity to play around with their designs in the customization tool, twisting and turning to see their work in every angle possible. Some are also able to get an even closer look with the photo mode in the game.
“This has been such a fun process, and I do believe that it’s been extra fun because of this collaboration with a local tattoo parlor. It gives the whole thing a flavor of Malmö, somehow,” says Adam.
“Hopefully, our work on The Division 2 can help raise the bar for tattoo standards in games,” concludes Hjalmar as his character runs towards the Capitolium.
