I totally get the whole Japanese aesthetic in tattoo design thing. I get the use of flash tattoo as a loaded symbol of human emotion BS. But really, the crass merchandising of an art form, any art form is deplorable. It is even more obnoxious when that art form is one about an underground culture – now usurped by mainstream America. When Ed Hardy started tattooing, the whole concept was so counter cultural – so against the mainstream. Hardy had even mentioned once in an interview that “I liked that it couldn’t be commodified.”

Well right now you cant get more commodified than the expensive and very upscale clothing lines by Hardy’s merchandisers, which of course have no real connection to Ed Hardy ( except for the big fat check he gets). That was all because of Christian Audigier, the same one responsible for killing the image of Von Dutch by turning it into cheap crap (and a crappy energy drink too). This energy drink is touted as a “tattoo for the tongue.” – which even sounds stupid. This drink will not make you any hipper, cooler or in any way counter anything – for that you actually need to get a tattoo (btw, Hardy’s awesome tat shop is still up and running in San Fran – http://www.tattoocitysf.com call for appointments)

Taste:4
As for this drink itself, I was totally unimpressed. The flavor was one of cheap apple, and did not have much to it. I have certainly tasted better apple drinks – as this lightly carbonated one did not seem to have very much apple. It was not a bad flavor, just not a very good one either.

Buzz/Nutrition:2
The buzz in here was also pretty mediocre. I don;t know how much caffeine there is in here ( no mention of it on the label) but it seems that the biggest energy boost in here is from the high fructose corn syrup. I would expect this to at least have as much caffeine as your average Red Bull/Monster, but I received even less boost from this than that!
And of course, along with the big sugar rush comes the giant sugar crash. I got very sleepy after about 2 hours of drinking the can. Not to mention, other than taurine, this has no particularly exciting energy ingredients or nutrition or vitamins to help your energy or health at all.

Packaging:2
What can I say. Stupid slogans – and for being a tattoo artist, a giant tiger is really the best that they could do??? Not only am I not impressed with the use of Hardy’s art, I am more than a little offended that even with an artist they made a can look this bad.
Down to the mechanics of the packaging; there are some lame slogans off to one side, the can is only single faced, the lid is not on facing the right direction and there is no listing of caffeine. FAIL

The picture and a great review of the energy drink is from blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bella