Tired of always buying new pairs of gym sneakers, a UK man had his favorite pair of Nikes permanently tattooed onto his feet.

Dean Gunther, a popular tattoo artist from Manchester, in the United Kingdom, recently went viral on Instagram and TikTok after sharing a short video of himself tattooing a pair of sneakers onto a client’s feet. Although drawn exclusively by hand, seen from a certain angle, the design really does create the illusion that the person is wearing a pair Vibram FiveFingers sneakers with built-in toe slots. The man apparently prefers Nikes, but they don’t make that design, so…

Photo: Dean Gunther/Instagram

“He’s tired of paying for shoes, so he decided he will get his favorite pair of Nikes tattooed on him and he can see the funny side to it!” Dean Gunther told NeedToKnow.online. “Definitely a great conversation starter. His wife loves it too.”

Gunther said that the hardest part was drawing the sneakers by hand, as using a stencil was out of the question. He viewed a 360 rendition of the sneakers and then spent a couple of hours freehanding the design onto the client’s feet. The tattooing took another 8 hours to complete.

Photo: Dean Gunther/Instagram

“Drawing the tattoo on my free hand was the most challenging part. I had to make sure everything flows with the contours of the body,” Gunther said. “I wanted to create the illusion that the person is wearing shoes, even though he’s bare feet. It will definitely make you look twice.”

Interestingly, this is the second bizarre tattoo that Gunther has done recently. Only a couple of weeks ago we covered the hyper-realistic ‘six-pack abs’ tattoo he did for a client who allegedly didn’t want to waste time at the gym anymore.

For more unusual yet intriguing tattoos, check out the science-inspired artworks of Michele Volpi or the man with the most insects tattooed on his body.