Van Halen Frontman David Lee Roth Launches Ink The Original

(TRR) – Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth is making his foray into the world of beauty products. The vocalist has announced the launch of Ink The Original – his brand new skin care line designed specifically for tattoos.

Ink The Original is the first full line of products designed to preserve the life and vibrancy of tattoos. The brand’s current product line includes a Brightener Balm Jar, SPF 50+ Tattoo Spray, and SPF 50+ Tattoo Stick. Products are available individually or in Big Ink and Little Ink Essential bundles. All products are cruelty free, toxin free, fragrance free, residue free, and reef safe.

“I got my first tattoo 40 years ago, a little seahorse on my ankle, at a place called Cliff Raven Studio on Sunset Boulevard in ’77, ’78,” Roth recently told Vogue. “That was very outré then—the only people who got tattoos then were bikers, rock ’n’ rollers to a small degree; the gay community was into it. Eventually, though, I took a much more gentrified approach: I waited until I was 60 and got the whole Japanese tuxedo. It took me 300 hours of sitting over two years. But I planned it for the 30 years prior, and it’s my design: kabuki faces, the original showbiz, rendered Edo style—it looks like a woodblock print.”

When asked how he got into the tattoo skin care game, Roth responded, “Simple: The product that we’re dealing with now goes hand in hand with what I think is the true Esperanto. It’s a language—ink—that everybody shares, especially if you don’t speak the same language. With ink, we read each other’s signs and icons. In that way, it’s much like music.”

“I started this project with three of us sitting around an upended plastic bucket for a table at my house in L.A.,” he continued. “Now, there’s 34 of us and we have offices in New York as well as L.A. It’s taken three years and close to $7 million, and I’m involved in every single element of every part of it. Surprisingly, there’s almost no competition.

Roth has a partner in his new venure. “My business partner, Ami James, is the curator and one of the three owners of Tattoodo, which has more than 500,000 artists curated on their site,” he revealed. “They get 2 billion views a month and have 20 million social media followers.”

Van Halen’s last studio album A Different Kind of Truth was released in 2012 via Interscope. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200. Throughout their career, Van Halen have sold over 80 million records worldwide. In 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.