Remembering Romero: Tattoo Tribute

Steve Barton |

Jul 24, 2017

With the mounting pressure of Comic-Con staring me in the face, I did what was probably the last thing I should have done before tackling San Diego’s biggest beast… I went in for a tattoo. This was important to me. It was urgent. To honor the memory of George A. Romero, I had to bleed.

A night or so earlier Buz Wallick came up with a simple and extremely cool design… Romero’s trademark specs with his handwritten catch phrase, “Stay Scared,” under it. Perfect. He sent me some artwork, and I cleaned it up a bit. From there I sent it to my good friend Tiffany to further clean up the lettering.

Once we had what would be the finished artwork, Buz went immediately to get his done. The results? Perfect.

Romero Tattoo

Me? It was Comic-Con eve, and I had no artist or appointment. I turned to my good friend David Hahn, and he scored me an early appointment with one of San Diego’s best, Rusty McDermitt of American Tattoo. Within minutes everything was on track.

Romero Tattoo

Rusty was AMAZING. To see more of his stuff, follow him on Instagram here and here, on Twitter @Rusty_mc, and of course on Facebook.

I cannot tell you how honored I am to be a brother in blood with Buz. George? He would look at us and say, “But what the fuck is wrong with you cats?” while throwing his hands up and laughing his wonderful laugh. “Why the glasses?”

Because we love you, George. And we always will. If you would like to join Buz and me in our tribute, I’ve included the artwork below. If you’re in San Diego, make sure you hit up Rusty and tell him Creepy sent ya! Send us your pics! We’ll include them here and on Dread Central’s Facebook page.

Big thanks to Dave, Tiff, Buz, and of course Rusty. Love you guys lots!