A Canadian tattoo artist has tattooed over 70 people over 9 months to recreate an iconic scene of Koko the Clown from the 1933 Betty Boop film ‘Snow White’.

Phil Berge, a 34-year-old tattoo artist, realised his idea of recreating the scene of Koko the Clown singing the St. James Infirmary Blues by tattooing each of the 76 frames on over 70 individuals.

The dynamic footage shows the character turning from a clown into a ghost as he dances and sings along to a Cab Calloway song. Taken from the 1933 Betty Boop Snow White film, the scene is an iconic part of animation history.

Phil made the tattoos at Tatouage Royal in Montreal and edited the video at home himself, over the course of 9 months: “The project was started in December 2020 and finished in the following September.”

“I’ve been making animated tattoos for the last five years now. I was inspired by my love for traditional animation, vintage cartoons and traditional tattoos."

He described how he made his dream a reality: “I’d had the idea for a while - Koko the Clown is an amazing piece of animation history and I knew people would be interested in getting him tattooed."