J&B Rare scotch blend whisky was once the “world’s most unconventional whisky”, with an eccentric family history that began in the middle of the 18th century: “Our history dates back to 1749 when Giacomo Justerini, an Italian from Bologna, came to London to woo the Italian opera singer Margherita Bellino. Spurned, he remained in London and set himself up as a Wine Merchant in Pall Mall with his English partner George Johnson. Together they ran a very fashionable and successful business catering to London’s high living aristocracy.”
J&B has also always differentiated itself on its recipe. “Each time you sip J&B RARE, 42 different whiskies pass your lips. They are carefully blended together to create a subtle, smooth and complex flavour. The delicate balance is what gives J&B RARE its distinctive character. If we took even one whisky away you would taste the difference.”
Outre has an undebatable appeal for Gen Y. But what sells alcohol to kids is its usefulness – for paaaarty-ing. So J&B has reinvented itself as ‘the party whisky’. And it is acquiring all the party trappings: a cool social media presence and a hipster look.
This is where Button Button Design and tattoo artist, Sébastien Mathieu, come into the story.
This is the story:
J&B Rare scotch blend whisky was created in London middle of the 19th century by the already famous wine and spirits merchant, Justerini & Brooks, who wanted create its own house whisky. At the the same time, tattoos started to spread through London, the trend coming from Royal Navy sailors, who used to return from distant travels sporting tattoos. The fashion eventually reached the British upper class when Prince Bertie (later Edward VII) was first tattooed in 1862. It then spread throughout Great Britain and Europe…
When Button Button was given the job of designing a limited edition range of bottle, it seized on the opportunity to use Gen Y’s reawakening of tattoo fascination as the foundation of its design. The studio decided to tattoo 25 bottles for real.
The bottles were completely covered with a latex skin, like the one used to practice tattoo, slim enough to respect bottle shape and strong enough to be hit hundreds of times with a tattooer’s needles. The skins were given the colour of human skin to strengthen the tattoo perception and create something intriguing. Sébastien Mathieu Bousille, owner of Le Sphinx – a private tattoo room in Paris – was then invited to create the tattoos. He reported later that he responded to the creative challenge and only later, discovered its complexity. It took him about 20 hours to tattoo each bottle.
Each of the 25 bottles is tattooed from a single design but intrinsically, each bottle is unique. All 25 bottles were offered for sale in Paris at Publicis Drugstore and at L’éclaireur rue Herold. They are presented in rough black silkscreened wooden boxes.
