Who is on the album cover of ‘Tattoo You’ by The Rolling Stones?
By the time of their second album for the 1980s, The Rolling Stones were enjoying a confident ‘comeback’ roll. While never having gone away, a creative lull following the golden era of their 1968 to 1972 output spelt their second bout of waning vitality since Their Satanic Majesties Request‘s psychedelic dabble.
Soaking up the punk and disco setting alight two very different camps in pop at the end of the 1970s, the rawer and looser rock strut of Some Girls, helped by its classic lead single ‘Miss You’, ushered a new chapter of commercial rejuvenation and a reignition of the old Stones magic.
This buoyed late spurt continued through to 1981’s Tattoo You. Lead by the band’s last bonafide gem ‘Start Me Up’, their 16th LP found the band foraging their litany of outtakes and languishing studio cuts, ‘Waiting on a Friend’ first sketched nearly a decade earlier during the Goats Head Soup sessions in Jamaica. Dropping at the cusp of MTV’s cultural conquer of the pop world, frontman Mick Jagger’s tarting about dancing for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s video ensured heavy rotation on the fledgling network, cementing his eventual self-parody on solo bombs like She’s the Boss.
Needing a cutting-edge cover for the new wave audience, graphic artist Peter Corriston and illustrator Christian Piper were recruited to realise an eye-popping cover. Serving as one of The Stones’ most memorable covers, the clashing red background and black and white subject adorned with tribal ink was their boldest visual statement since Beggars Banquet‘s rejected toilet cover.
“I started looking at Indian sand paintings and that led me to sideshow, these sideshow circus things where I saw the painted woman, and I thought, ‘That’s kind of interesting,'” Corriston recalled. “I did some study of the Samurai warriors and because once again this direction, The Stones are the strongest of all the rock and roll people in the world. The Samurai are pretty strong, and apparently, there is a tradition where the strongest of the strong would have tattoos on their face.”
So, who is on Tatoo You‘s cover?
The question often asked is, “Who’s the woman on the front cover?” Gifted with androgynous beauty, the model pouting on Tattoo You is, in fact, Jagger. Adopting the Goats Head Soup approach of Jagger on the front and Richards skulking on the back cover, photographer Hubert Kretzschmar snapped several headshots of the pair, documenting the respective commitments to the sessions.
According to Corriston, Jagger arrived at the shoot punctually and gave hours of his time to get the right snap, insisting on viewing all contact sheets to select the correct angle. With a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in one hand and a joint in the other, Richards turned up the next day three hours late, granted several perfunctory modelling shots, and exited as soon as he arrived. When asked if he wanted to highlight his favourite snap, he nonplussed and quipped, “Nah, that’s what Mick’s for, cheers.”
It was an effective piece of work, affording the band its defining image of the decade and serving as the gateway symbol of a new generation of kids bludgeoned with the album’s videos’ MTV domination. Encapsulating what made The Rolling Stones so alluring during their mid-1960s pomp, Tattoo You, aided with its electric cover, marked the last time the band were possessed with sincere vitality.
