Wallace and Gromit villain Feathers McGraw becomes popular tattoo choice after release of new film

Wallace and Gromit's silent nemesis has become an unlikely hit at a tattoo shop - with one artist drawing six in just a week.

A month on from the release of Aardman Animations' latest film 'Vengeance Most Fowl', the infamous villain Feather's McGraw has become one of the most asked for artworks.

The villainous penguin comically disguised as a chicken, thanks to the red rubber glove he wears on his head, is the main antagonist in the now Oscar-nominated film, which aired on Christmas Day.

McGraw has now become a viral sensation, with tattoo artists noticing an increase in the amount of people requesting the evil penguin to be inked on to their skin.

Faith Garvie, a tattoo artist at Black Moon Tattoo Studio in Liverpool said: "In this last week just gone I did six Feathers."

She added: "I’ve been brought to tears a couple of times because people have been so positively impacted by the tattoos."

Social media platforms have been awash with people posting pictures of their freshly inked McGraw tattoos, from Lancashire to Worcestershire and Cornwall.

Ms Garvie thinks the reason the character has captured the imagination of tattoo enthusiasts is "the magic of claymation, as he’s so emotive, but he doesn’t speak at all".

The 33-year-old said her tattoos take between one and three hours to create, mainly inked on to people’s arms and legs, and most clients are women between the ages of 18 and 30.

“I’m super lucky with my clients, we have the most wonderful conversations about why they’re getting the tattoos,” she said.

“A lot of it will be they grew up with the characters or their family grew up with them.

“One guy came in and got his first tattoo, it was of the Feathers wanted poster.

“He was the dad of two teenagers and said he had really wanted the tattoo since lockdown, so that was really lovely.”

Among those being tattooed is 20-year-old Liverpool John Moores University student Gia O’Donohoe.

“I remember seeing the film when it came out on Christmas Day and it was at that moment that I thought, that’s just so funny and I was going to get a Feathers tattoo," said the international relations and politics student.

“When I saw the scene with him and the seal, it was a lightbulb moment and I knew it was going to be that one.”

Ms O’Donohoe had an image of McGraw with a seal pup on his lap, a tongue-in-cheek reference to James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, tattooed on to her right arm by the Brass Tattoo Company in Liverpool.

Posting it on X the image received more than 9,000 likes and 200,000 views, and was even reposted by Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman.

“It was kind of crazy, I just decided to tag them and they were one of the first people who liked it, and then they reposted it and then it got 3,000 likes overnight,” she said.

She said that while she loves McGraw, her favourite character is actually Gromit, and she has a tattoo of him sitting in an armchair knitting, on her left leg.

“He’s a really cool character and even though he’s docile, sometimes he can flick a switch and become the hero of the day,” she explained.

Ms Garvie said there are two particular images of McGraw to which customers are drawn.

“One of them is from Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers – it’s where Feathers gets stuck in a glass bottle,” she said.

“Everyone seems to adore that and some people get it with the glove on his head and others without.

“There’s also a scene – again, where he’s in The Wrong Trousers, where he’s standing at the bottom of the stairs in Wallace and Gromit’s house and he looks over at them, and people get that scene a lot as well.”

After a month producing tattoos of her favourite Wallace and Gromit character, Ms Garvie said she intends to get one of her own soon – once business calms down.

“It’s mainly just finding the time to be honest,” she said.