From Katy Perry to Justin Bieber, tattoo artist Keith “Bang Bang” McCurdy’s client list reads like a who’s who of young Hollywood.
“When you’re well-known, it can be hard knowing who to trust, but I trusted Bang Bang from the first time he tattooed me,” wrote pal Rihanna, 27, in the foreword for his new book, “BANG BANG: My Life In Ink.”
Celebs put trust in McCurdy to permanently mark their oft-photographed bodies, but the New Yorker has occasionally talked stars out of getting a tat they may regret later on.
“We almost did a broken guitar on [Rihanna’s] forearm once with a pair of underwear hanging from it,” the 29-year-old told Page Six. “I let her leave with the stencil and I said, ‘Why don’t you wear that stencil for a few days and call me if you still like it?’ Thankfully we didn’t end up doing that one.”
McCurdy — who got his start inking friends in the kitchen of his mother’s Delaware home — has been working on the “Break It Off” singer for nearly a decade and faced his biggest celebrity fix with her too.
“The tattoo that that needed the most work for me was Rihanna’s hand,” explained McCurdy. “We did a bit of a cover-up on a Maori-style tribal tattoo that was on her hand – now it looks more like a henna tattoo.”
He continued, “It wasn’t done … in a way that was really flattering to her and it needed to be beautiful.”
Read More at Page Six