Tattoos and Beer: A Collab We Can Get Behind
Young Henrys’ Booze-less Pacific Ale is a loud and proud urban expression of exactly what we think a non-alc beer should be.
It’s full of bright, punchy hop aromas and zest, with a pale straw colour, gentle haze and a dry, refreshing finish - all at less than 0.5% ABV.
This wasn’t a product Young Henrys’ wanted to rush. They were patient. They watched and waited for the right time, making sure they could deliver a true standout in the non-alc space. Now, with some exciting new brewing processes that we’re not even going to begin to try and understand, they're confident they’ve created one of, if not the best-tasting non-alc beers Australia has ever seen, and we tend to agree.
Staying true to Young Henrys’ brand, and ethos, they didn’t go quiet with the art direction for the product either. They collaborated with traditional tattooist and friend of Monster Children; Ben Hastings of Tattoo Rosies and Sydney Tattoo Club, a highly respected and influential artist within Australian tattoo culture. In keeping with tattoo art form, and leaning into an analogue process, every step of the art direction scaling was done by hand.
Monster Children sat down with co-founder of Young Henrys’ Oscar McMahon and Ben Hastings recently to talk through how this beautiful collaboration all came together.
What was the original idea when you first started talking about the collaboration?
Oscar McMahon: It was kind of funny how when we first talked about it - I probably had a simple shitty idea, and you were like, hey, this sounds really cool, but let's make it cooler.
Ben Hastings: If someone gives me their time of day, I'll give it back to them. I probably won't reply to an email, but I'll take a phone call. If you've got an idea, let's grab a beer and talk about it, because I'll give you an honest opinion. This is the way I'd like to do it. If you want to do it that way, let's do it. If not, that's fine. It’s a sick idea, but let's agree to not make it shit.
What's the right way for a collaboration to approach an existing culture or subculture?
OM: Don't talk about a culture, get the people from the culture to talk about it, and be a part of that. If you're going to work within someone's subculture, you have to get the right people involved, and they almost need to be in control.
Ben, what was it about the idea that made you want to get involved?
BHThe Young Henrys’ guys were a Sydney brewery approaching a Sydney tattoo shop, doing something related to the city and the ocean around us. Everything was like - okay, cool, I can be a partner in that. I can associate with that.
Where did the concept for the art direction start?
BH: That was the starting point - an old Frank Thompson sheet, sky blue background, taped-up flash. Pretty Sydney.
What do you think defines a distinctly Sydney tattoo style?
BH: What differentiates Sydney from a lot of Australia is guys like Bob Ward and Craig Ardern from Sleevemasters, pushing their interpretation of Japanese backgrounds and filling the gaps between the tattoos. Sleeve masters. It's always local imagery. Stuff is more hand-drawn, rather than looking staunch rather than an American eagle. It was definitely a lot cruder, but I guess that in itself has its own style too.
What era of Australian tattooing are you most into right now?
BH: My favourite time period in tattooing right now is probably late '80s to early '90s Australian tattoo. That being said, ask me six months ago and I'd have said the '70s. Right now I'm all in on the purples and blues, the weird stuff.
OM: Man, I loved that thing you told me about how traditional tattoo designs back in the day travelled around the world by mail, tattoo artists posting tattoo outlines of their new designs to each other. This weird pen pal network of tattoo artists all sorta paying it forward in some respect. Which kinda meant that most of the trad tattoo designs that we all know and love have crossed the pacific to get to us and then morphed with our artists and culture from there. Funny how through this project, your flash designs are getting out to people across a different kind of Pacific. There’s something nice in that.
Nice one, thanks guys. Beer?
Young Henrys’ Boozless launched at Monster Children’s Gallery in late September and is available in all good pubs and bottle shops, head here for more.
