Have you ever looked at a picture of one of the lead Warhammer 40k characters, like Horus Lupercal or Khârn the Betrayer, and thought to yourself “but what would he look like as a frog?” No, us neither, but it’s a question that tattoo artist Dan Abreu is answering anyway, with a series of amphibian mashups.
UK-based Abreu posted a photograph of a cold-blooded World Eaters Khorne Berserker tattoo on his Instagram on Monday, and shared flashes of froghammer designs to the ‘Warhammer 40k fans’ facebook group.
Abreu has designs for batrachian fighters from just about every Warhammer 40k faction – not to mention a frog Emperor of Mankind. On December 8 2022 he posted a completed Horus Lupercal “in glorious frog form” to Instagram. Abreu says “Horus frog took about 5 hours and was done in one sitting!”
According to Abreu’s information page on Township Tattoos, he “specialises in his own take on the traditional style, through colourful, illustrative designs”. Abreu says his frogs are “inspired by traditional or American traditional tattoos in the way that I shade and colour my designs”, adding “Frogs are quite a typical AT/T tattoo motif and something I enjoy tattooing.”
Traditional or old-school tattoos use clean black outlines and bold colours, usually with minimal shading, which is certainly visible in these bright and froggy space warlords.
Abreu is a Warhammer 40k collector, with his own Astra Militarum army and an Ultramarines force he shares with his twin brother and dad. Out of his various frog designs he says he’s “torn between The Emperor, Castellan Creed or Yarrick!” as his favourite.
There’s certainly demand for this unique style of Warhammer 40k mashup, as there are a lot of positive comments on Abreu’s Instagram from people who want their own froghammer ink. Abreu comments that he should “hopefully have a frog Mortarion to post” soon, suggesting someone has already committed to adding a sickly Death Guard amphibian somewhere on their body.
Ordinarily when we read “Warhammer” and “frog” in the same sentence we assume it’s a reference to the Slann Mage Priests, the giant psychic toads found in Warhammer The Old World and Total War: Warhammer III. If you’re a fan of fat fantasy frog friends, good news – a fantastic new Slann model was previewed at the Las Vegas Open as part of the Seraphon range refresh, and may arrive as soon as this Summer.