20 • SKIN DEEP MAGAZINE
hand. “Whatever you see on screen might look good, but
when you get 3D objects and you hold them, it changes
how you think about a piece. So I do several iterations,
testing each one, until it feels right, before I start to re-
lease it.” It’s only when demand is high—or the sculpts are
too big—that he gets someone else involved to help with
the fabrication.Bad Dogs & Do-Dos
Thanks an affection for Green Day’s “Whatshername”
and a terrible memory, Burdon calls himself profession-
ally, Whatshisname: “I can never remember other artists’
names. I recognise their work but I have no idea who did
what, so it seemed only fair that I should be known as
Whatshisname.
While Whatshisname may be a modestly anonymous
moniker, his bright, bold, and gleeful works are hard to for-
get... though it did take him some time to get the nerve to
share those very first pieces with the wider world. Burdon:
“For a long time, I had quite a lot of unreleased sculp-
tures. I’d do a prototype, a drawing, or a 3D model, and
I would just put it back in the drawer and, later, I’d find
out that someone had made exactly the same thing and
become very successful with it. To the point where, dur-
ing Occupy London in 2012, Jimmy Cauty created his riot
shield smiley face at the same time that I’d done mine!
But the first thing, the first big thing I did were the dog
lamps—a naughty dog standard lamp, where you have to
step on a turd to switch the lamp on. It was one of those
things that, when I made it, I had such a laugh. I couldn’t
stop looking at it and laughing!”
Which brings us back to those pooping ballon dogs.
Burdon’s fabulous party balloon animal sculpts, are made
in breezy colours, and enticingly touchable. “It’s my fa-
vourite piece. It brings me so much joy, has been so well
received, and I had such a laugh when I made it. The fun-
ny thing is, when I created the first one—the prototype— I
was very proud of it but I for six months, I just sat on it.
Keeping it quiet, to myself. I think it was one of the things
and where I thought, what if everyone hates it and I love
it so much! I was too attached to it. It’s still my favourite
thing in the world and now I’m releasing new sculptures—
pooping dogs in different poses—so that they have turned
into quite a series.”
You can buy Burdon’s work in all sizes, in 3D or as
screen-prints. And, of course, as tattoos. “To be honest
though” he says, “my designs tend to stand on their own,
without my name attached. So I don’t think people are
getting tattooed because of me. I think they do it because
they like the design.”Hits & Misses
Ironically for a guy whose profession is based ideas and
images, Burdon doesn’t have any tattoos of his own.
“And I’m glad that I haven’t, actually, because when
I was growing up, I always had ideas for tattoos that I