Apparently, teeth tattooing is huge is Mumbai right now, but that’s according to a load of Indian dental surgery websites, and they’re not that great for providing any real evidence, i.e., photos or gushing testimonials from satisfied teeth tattooees. I couldn’t actually find any pictures of this hot new craze anywhere on the internet either, that’s how totally underground it is over there. Instead, I contacted Steven Heward, an artist from Utah who’s been tattooing pictures on teeth for the last 30 years – he’s a true veteran in the game.
Vice: So how does teeth tattooing work, you don’t use a gun, right?
Steven Heward: No. What happens is that a person would go and get their tooth prepped at a dentist, then they would then send the impression to my lab where we fabricate a metal coping, then we put porcelain over it and fire that, and then grind it to the right shape. We’d then put the design on, glaze it, fire that again, then polish it. Then finally we’d send it back to the dentist and they would cement it on to the patient’s tooth.
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Oh, so people don’t actually remove their teeth then have them cemented back in to have this done?
No, not at all. It’s kinda just like if someone chipped their tooth real bad and the dentist built one back up for them again, only I stain the new part of the tooth with porcelain glaze, kind of like you would do for ceramic pottery, or whatever.
A portrait of Steven from the 70s.
So you’re like an artist/dentist hybrid?
Yeah. Well, I trained as a portrait painter in the 70s and my brother-in-law had a dental surgery back then. He thought I would do a good job on teeth because I’m an artist, so I helped him make crowns and I ended up opening my own lab later on and then kind of went from there.
Apparently teeth tattooing is really popular in Mumbai at the moment, have you had any orders from over there?
Oh yeah, I’ve had a few labs contact me asking how to do it, sure, but no, I’ve never sent anything over to Mumbai myself.
Yeah, they’re proving to be pretty elusive. So where do you get most your orders from?
Mostly just all round the United States – nowhere in particular. It’s not like there’s a big scene here for it, I don’t think, I guess it just depends on who wants to get one done at any point in time.
Were you the first guy doing it in the states?
Well, when I first did it back in the late 70s it was really rare. Other people would do, like, a little heart or a flower, or something like that – nothing elaborate – but when people found out I could do more elaborate stuff I started getting a lot more requests.
What’s your favorite thing to paint out of all your designs? I like that Tiger Woods one on your website.
Yeah, I like doing portraits. They’re really satisfying when I complete them and I’m able to see the likeness.
Do you have any teeth tattoos yourself?
No, but my son has three and my neighbor has, I think, nine or so.
So you’ve been shopping them round your friends and family?
Right, yeah.
What does your son have?
He’s got one of our dog right before he died, a portrait of Bob Dylan, and then he has one of the University of Utah logo.
Have you ever done any designs on grills before?
Yeah, my son Grant and I did one about a month ago, actually. Some lady in Florida had a large space between her two front teeth and she wanted another tooth put in there to fill the gap. She had all three front teeth fabricated, though, and she wanted them to be gold and have little porcelain windows. She wanted a crucifix on the new middle tooth and then on one central she wanted praying hands and on the other central she wanted a portrait of Jesus Christ. It was amazing, but quite expensive because gold is pretty pricey right now. But yeah, that was definitely the strangest one so far.
JAMIE CLIFTON
