Last week, a woman coming out of a duffle bag in Times Square, covered in tattoos and not knowing who she was, captivated us all. Did you know that when Jaimie Alexander filmed that scene for the Blindspot pilot, nearly naked in Manhattan, and it was one of the coldest nights in NYC? That is just one of the ways that Jaimie Alexander suffers for her art on this television show, and she is not complaining about it.
Another way she suffers is that it takes a long time to put all of the tattoos on her. How long? At the TCA NBC Summer Press Day, she told us it takes “about seven-and-a-half hours to apply.” Thankfully, for her, the fake ink can last for several days. Even though we have seen her in full body tats, there are times when they are covered up with clothes and that makes things easier on everyone.
How many tattoos does Jane Doe have on her body? We don’t know, but Executive Producer Martin Gero says that she has about 9-10 years’ worth of stories sprawled all over her. And yes, there are secret tattoos that we don’t know about.
With all that attention to detail on the tattoos, how long have the producers been mapping them out? They started pitching the show just over a year ago and since then they have been working on it. Gero explained how much of a group effort the final product is; he said they talked to, “David Kwong, who is this New York Times puzzle expert and magician…We talked to mapmakers and tattoo artists, obviously, graphic designers.” All of those people to create one person covered in black ink all over her from head to toe.
So as I said, it takes her seven-and-a-half-hours to be made up, but are they drawing all of those designs on her skin? Thankfully, for all involved, they are not. They use a company called Tinsley Transfers, and it works just like those Cracker Jacks ones you used to put on your arm when you were a kid. Just the ones they use are a lot more elaborate.
Now back to Alexander, does she have any tattoos that were not put on her by the makeup artists? She has 9 of them and they are all covered up for the show. She told us about one of them, so keep your eye out for the one on right arm that is the initials of her four brothers.
Now that you know a lot more than you knew about the Blindspot tattoos before you started reading this post; make sure to watch fall’s biggest new show on NBC tonight and every Monday at 10p!
