Like many things in the crypto world, $INK DAO found its humble beginnings in a shitpost on Twitter dot com that quickly escalated into a group of 10 people getting ERC-721 tattoos and calling themselves a DAO.

What started as a joke...

On September 13, 2021, I saw Andrew Wang RT a photo of @anloremi with an ERC-721 tattoo. I ended up RTing that and asking if anyone wanted to get tattoos in NYC the following week during Messari Mainnet - mostly as a joke and not expecting anyone to actually respond.

Matt, Lauren, Stef, and Jim were some of the first people to show support and excitement for this idea.

...turned into a DAO

Evin then aped in when we were grabbing coffee the morning of our tattoo appointment and suggested forming a DAO to NFT-pill tattoo artists. She had never gotten a tattoo before.

One thing led to another and before we knew it, 10 of us were gathered at Three Kings in Brooklyn on September 22, 2021 waiting to get matching ERC-721 tattoos. Our first governance vote was to decide which font to use for our tattoos. No doubt the tattoo parlor thought we were a cult, and who can blame them?

Four of us ended up getting our tattoos that night from Gustavo, and several others would return over the course of the next few days. As we took turns getting inked by him, we also took turns crypto-pilling him - helping him set up a wallet, explaining what NFTs are, and getting him his first NFT from Matt Condon’s hand.

The day after the gathering at Three Kings, pet3rpan tweeted

followed by

These tweets caught the attention of a number of people, including DeFi Dave, who got his proof of ink a mere two hours after seeing the tweets.

Other notable moments included an ERC trio tat, three ERC-721 tats in one night, and DeFi Papi and NFT Mami getting their tats in the same location on their bodies without talking about it in advance.

Crypto pilling tattoo artists everywhere

$INK DAO started as a joke but has grown into a group of people who are passionate about educating tattoo artists everywhere about crypto and NFTs.

Tattoo artists no longer need to rely solely on bookings from the tattoo shop they work at for an income. They can now mint and sell their artwork as NFTs, helping them to grow their income and their following.

Taking it one step further, tattoo artists can spin up all sorts of creative ways to sell their NFTs. They could create 1:1 NFT pieces that can be burned and redeemed for a physical tattoo. Or they could create a collection of 10 pieces that can be held, sold, or burned, which could turn the collection into an economic game between its holders.

The sky’s the limit with NFTs and we can’t wait to help educate and bring tattoo artists everywhere into crypto.