Do These ‘Drop Dead Fred’ Tattoos Truly Exist?

Released in 1991, and starring Rik Mayall, Phoebe Cates (Gremlins), and Carrie Fisher (Star Wars), Drop Dead Fred still baffles audiences to this day.

Deeply philosophical or just pure fun, a child versus an adult perspective on the film will find wildly different meaning. Now watching as an adult, I truly recognise the troubling familial relationships, the broken marriage, feeling lost, and searching for happiness. It’s quite interesting to read other peoples’ analysis in regards to the character of Elizabeth and her imaginary friend, Drop Dead Fred.

Critics were not that kind when the film was released in 1991; they disliked that the director didn’t choose to either make a ridiculously crazy children’s film or one which was incredibly serious and thought provoking. They didn’t appreciate that it was somewhere in the middle.

Drop Dead Fred performed poorly at the box office but likely saw more success in the video rental market. Are you truly a ’90s kid if you never borrowed Drop Dead Fred from your local video store?

Tim Burton was originally approached to direct, with Robin Williams (Mrs. Doubtfire) as the titular character. As much as I love Robin, and how sad it is that they’ve both passed away, Rik just fit the role of Drop Dead Fred so perfectly.

When researching for this list, I was surprised to discover that quite a bit of Drop Dead Fred was filmed at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios. How about a tattoo featuring the two, or a mashup of some sort?

How you feel about the film will determine the direction you take when developing a tattoo design concept.

A jack-in-the-box is a common choice for a Drop Dead Fred tattoo, as is Drop Dead Fred’s look of utter contempt and disgust. For something truly out of the box, how about including one of the other imaginary friends we see in the waiting room at the children’s psychologist? A tattoo mashup of Drop Dead Fred and your own childhood imaginary friend would be deeply personal, or perhaps go with Riley’s (Inside Out) imaginary friend, Bing Bong for a Disney/Pixar spin.