Tim Steiner has an elaborate tattoo on his back that was designed by a famous artist and sold to a German art 1 When Steiner dies, his skin will be framed – until then he spends his life sitting in galleries with his shirt off. ‘The 2 of art is on my back. I’m just the guy carrying it 3’, says the 40-year-old former tattoo parlour manager from Zurich. A decade ago, his then girlfriend met a Belgian artist called Wim Delvoye, who’d become 4 known for his controversial work tattooing pigs. Delvoye told her he was looking for someone to 5 to be a human canvas for a new work and asked if she knew anyone who might be interested. “My skin belongs to Rik Reinking now – my back is the canvas, I am the temporary frame.” Two years later, after 40 hours of tattooing, the image 6 across his entire back. It has a Madonna crowned by a Mexican-style skull with a halo, from 7 there are yellow rays emanating. There are swooping swallows, red and blue roses, and at the base of Steiner’s back, two Chinese-style koi fish, ridden by children, can be seen swimming past lotus flowers. The artist has signed the work on the right 8 side instead of doing it on the left.