I have always loved the character Tank Girl, and knew I wanted to do the costume. When I say Tank Girl, I mean the comic book character Tank Girl, as draw by Jamie Hewlett, and nothing else (later comic books or the movie are not acceptable versions in my mind).

One problem is that even in the somewhat limited comic book material, There is a wide variety of apperance and clothing of Tank Girl, so it was not exactly clear what my costume should look like. I ended up making my own composite of several of the drawings to make my own version of what Tank Girl looks like. In some ways the costume is therefore very high fidelity, and some ways not at all. I have included some of the key drawings here.

I took an old pair of jeans to accomplish the rather torn pants, and with the help of sewing, cutting ripping and washing accomplished the extensive holes. I sewed the tank top and the pink "butt flap" which is openable with push buttons.

It was clear that Tank Girl's gun had to be absolutely huge. I got very lycky and found an absolutely massive toy gun at a toy store. It makes plenty of noise, takes pop caps and has a rotating barrel. It is very cool, and people keep stealing it from me. To match such a massive gun you need a massive holster, and mine is hand-made in think leather, with the help of a special tool for tapping holes in leather and upholstering thread and needles. An addional strap was made form a belt to attach the gun to the leg, as the holster is so big. The belt buckle is hand sculpted in sculpey and glued onto an existing belt.

The final touches are accomplished through make-up, fake tatoos, dog tags, a dog collar, boots and various band-aids.

I really love this outfit, and have used it a lot over the years, but it has sometimes tended to bring out a certain beer swilling chaos in myself, which can range from entertaining to downright frightening. It is however, rather authentic for the character.