The things they do across the pond. This is a graffiti-enhanced snail whose chassis was pimped by English street artist, Slinkachu. We’re calling this snail John, for obvious reasons.

Under the stewardship of Slinkachu, this snail, bearing the London public transport logo, carries some commuters to work.

There they go.

In a project called ‘Inner City Snail – A Slow-Moving Street Art Project’, Slinkachu uses non-toxic paint to decorate wild snails that, for too long now, have been hiding their light under a bushel.

Generally, the snails enjoy the process, with one claiming his makeover had given him new confidence and brought him out of his shell. But once Slinkachu has finished applying the finishing touches, he frees the renewed snails to roam the streets and illegally park.

Yet Slinkachu cannot be the world’s only proprietor of a snail salon, for, in coursing the undergrowth, our researchers found this terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk. On his shell he bears the tag ‘Cre’, exquisitely rendered in snail varnish. Who’s Cre?

And then there’s this helix pomatia – a fine specimen, we think you’ll agree. On his appearance, he’s really shelled out.

And though by now we’ve become accustomed to encountering cosmetically enhanced helicidae – for yes, by that name goes the snail collective – we were nevertheless a little shell-shocked to discover snails showing their allegiance to Pikachu.

Sadly, on discovering this obnoxious youth our research ground to halt and we made Escargot. Add a little garlic to your butter.

Written by Julian on September 9th, 2010 | Tagged as: Popular Culture