The launch of Cult Classics sees the brand dive into their library, and revive some of the most surreal and covetable expressions of Nike’s DNA. So, when we caught wind that a feature of this year’s Cult Classics would include the Dunk ‘Ultraman’ - inspired by the hero of a serious cult-classic status created by Eiji Tsuburaya - there was only one person in the city that we knew to go to. Enter Nicholas Mudskipper, tattooist, shop owner and Japanese vintage toy collector, whose passion for Ultraman runs deeper than the ink in his skin.

Nicholas owns ‘TOMB’, a tattoo shop in Gardens, Cape Town. The space is like the left-hand path come to life - where any of your wrought attachments to māyā (illusion) are obligingly left at the door - and if tattooing were a ritual in which practitioners gather to study and meditate upon; then TOMB and its cast of artists would be Cape Town’s monastic order. After moving back from Bangkok nearly eight years ago, where Nicholas previously owned another shop, Nicholas explains that “TOMB is a strong name - its four letters, and coming from a graffiti background, I was looking for a name that was easy to remember. I’ve always loved the macabre - memento mori - things to do with death and honouring things that are impermanent. The whole shop looks like a shrine, inconspicuous from the outside but when you walk in, it's a sensory overload. Its kind of like discovering a tomb filled with internal treasures.” 

Merging the spiritual with the pop-cultural (particularly of the vintage and obscure variety), Nicholas’ kinetic understanding for building a refuge in the city that would serve as a portal to some of the greatest material expressions by human culture is evident in the curation of TOMB, which he notes is filled with “ talismans from all over the world - from travels to places like South East Asia, Nepal, Mexico. There are pieces from sacred places like monasteries up in Russia; I’ve been gifted all sorts of amazing things on travels and by people visiting the shop.” 

As Nick says, “I’ve always been into monsters and horror, and it's influenced my tattooing - I love the true designs of the monsters, the colourway, their stories and textures. I love thinking about all the characters and their different expressions, and of course - hunting toys.” Nicholas got deep into the toy collecting scene when he lived in Bangkok, a place he described as a ‘dumping ground for Japanese vintage toys’. The importance of collectibles are as profound to Nicholas as the spiritual invocations and talisman that adorn the walls of TOMB,  “I think my love for toys are pretty evident - when you walk in, you’re hit with a huge counter that's full of Japanese Bandai toys. I think people get stoked when they see all the toys. Walking into shops nowadays, people expect a white wall, a little plant and a welcome mat. I want people to walk in and either be terrified or impressed.”

As Nicholas, a long-time fan of the giant alien from the Land of Light in Nebula M78 (who comes to Earth to fight off various monsters and protect humanity) “the colourway is so strong. The gunmetal grey and the red just screams Ultraman. My favourite Ultraman bad-guy is a Pigmon, and he’s based off these very colours. It's very clever - if you’re a toy collector or a shoe collector, knowing it's associated with a vintage Japanese toy line lends such monumental character. I’m really stuck between whether I should be wearing them or displaying them with my toys.” and that “I love that Nike are doing an obscure, artist series approach.”