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Artist Doug Geiger creates beautiful engravings using the "banana scrimshaw" technique [1]

['Jennifer Sandlin']

Date: 2025-07-24

I really love artwork by Doug Geiger, who uses bananas — yes, actual real, fresh bananas — as a canvas, and a tattoo machine, sans ink, as a drawing instrument in a technique he calls "banana scrimshaw." These simple tools result in beautiful engravings that are incredibly detailed and heartbreakingly ephemeral. On his website, he provides details about how he makes his banana art:

I create detailed artwork on unusual surfaces, primarily using bananas as a canvas. Through a technique called banana scrimshaw, I etch designs into the peel with a tattoo machine, using oxidation to create contrast. I also carve rubber stamps and make block prints, often drawing from classic art and pop culture. My focus is on turning everyday objects into meaningful, tactile works that invite closer attention.

All of his work is terrific, but my favorite piece of banana scrimshaw, so far, is this recent piece, his gorgeous rendition of "The Great Wave off Kanagawa," which, he explains, was created in the late Edo period (1831) in Japan by artist Katsushika Hokusai as part of his woodblock print series "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji." He discusses the satisfaction of carving this piece (and the accompanying piece, Hokusai's Shower Below the Summit, that's on the opposite side of the banana bunch) on his canvas of choice:

For me, carving these onto bananas felt particularly satisfying because they were originally woodblocks. Most of the other works I've paid homage to are paintings, where the artist has many more colors available to tell their story. With a woodblock, the original artist used a simpler palette that is more closely aligned with my banana scrimshaw style.



I spent about five hours on these, which is a long time for me. It felt meditative. I was staring at something just inches from my face, listening to the low-frequency buzz of the tattoo machine and an evening thunderstorm outside. The fruit is soft and barely stable enough to work with. It bruises if you breathe wrong. That's what makes the art form interesting: like life, you have a short time to make your mark.

Doug posts photos of his banana scrimshaw on his website and on his Facebook page, "Doug Myself Out,"where he also shares stories about his experiences living in a care facility. He explains that at 45 he's "quite young" to be in long-term care facility, but states that he's there because he experienced complications from Ehlers-Danos syndrome and was left bedbound after having vertebrae in his neck fused two years ago. He engages in physical rehabilitation and has also embraced art as a "way to stay engaged and inventive within tight limitations." He continues:

Hi, I'm Doug—a long-term care resident, storyteller, and the internet's most helpful nursing home resident. On my YouTube channel Doug Myself Out, I share honest, sometimes funny reflections on life inside the system — filmed from my hospital bed. When I'm not recording, I'm carving tiny masterpieces into bananas. It all ties together: finding dignity, humor, and creativity in unexpected places — and helping others do the same.

Doug is living proof that, as he explains, "creative work can keep growing, even in constrained spaces." Thanks, Doug, for the awesome artwork as well as the meaningful inspiration!

To learn more about Doug Geiger and see more of his awesome art, check out his website.

Previously:

• Sailor tattoos decoded

• The art of whaling, from those who were there

• Is this the banana your grandchildren will eat?

• Retro food horror: 1963 cookbook photo of bananas wrapped in pickled herring

• Why 'banana flavoring' doesn't taste like bananas

• Mysterious plate of bananas appears monthly on street corner

• Someone ate another $120,000 banana artwork taped to a wall at museum (video)

• Just look at this banana-art.

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