Charlotte-based ad agency Tattoo Projects channels its off-duty creativity into raw, emotional custom motorcycles that blur the line between passion project and rolling art.
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In a world where creativity is currency, few agencies walk the walk like Tattoo Projects. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, they’re the minds behind campaigns for brands like Victory Motorcycles, Dodge, and John Deere. But when the pitch decks are closed and the brainstorms go quiet, CEO Rudy Banny and President Buffy McCoy Kelly shift gears—literally.
Their after-hours obsession? Building brutally beautiful custom motorcycles. No clients or deadlines. No deliverables. Just the same obsessive attention to detail, visual storytelling, and emotional punch—but this time, in the form of hand-built, garage-born machines.
“They must move a rider emotionally before moving them physically,” Rudy says—a line that sounds like a tagline, but runs deeper than that.
From Campaigns to Café Racers: Building Without the Brief
Tattoo Projects treats each bike like a concept campaign: purpose-driven, aesthetically fearless, and never derivative. These aren’t showroom queens or branded gimmicks—they’re personal machines born of downtime and unfiltered creativity. And despite growing attention, they refuse to sell them.
“It’s out of fear that once we do, we might lose sight of the fact that building bikes is a passion and not a job.”
That principle keeps them honest—and keeps the builds wild.
Featured Machines: Advertising Minds, Builder Hands
1986 BMW R80 “The Brafé”
Part brat, part café, all soul. Stripped down to the bare essentials and rebuilt with reverse cone shorties, Acewell digital gauges, rearsets, and fat Champ Deluxe rubber. This isn’t just a nod to form—it’s a middle finger to excess.
1976 Kawasaki KZ400
Bulky? Not anymore. Now a solo-seat, clip-on’d streetfighter with Ohlins shocks, powder-coated wheels, and Pirelli Scorpions. With 2topia’s wiring magic and Motogadget tech, it’s as lean as it is mean.
1970 BSA 650 Lightning
An angry, snarling throwback with a Triumph front end, Wassel pipes, King Bee chopper headlight, and a Nitroheads seat. Tattoo calls it “a bad relationship we just can’t quit”—and it looks every bit the part.
1974 Honda CB360 “The Tracker”
Built as a tribute to the Midwest’s dirt track legends, this CB is modest in mods but rich in roots: low-profile seat, flat track bars, and a stance that whispers rather than shouts. It’s storytelling through steel.
Creativity Without a Client
What makes Tattoo Projects unique isn’t just that they build bikes—it’s how they build them. Every project is a reaction to pressure, a form of release, and a reclaiming of creativity from the commercial grind. And maybe that’s what makes their bikes so special: they don’t need to impress a market—they just need to mean something.
The team doesn’t sell these bikes, but they do share their soul—one welded joint, chopped subframe, and reverse cone shorty at a time.
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