The Mac-10 is a very crude weapon designed to quickly spew out many rounds without much care for where they end up; combined with its box-like appearance leaves this weapon devoid of any finesse or refinement. Yet along with the AK47 and maybe the Tec-9 it is the most ‘gangster’ weapon in the game, so I decided to ‘pimp it up’.

I looked to criminal culture and tattoos which was a retreading of the research I did for the ‘thuglife’ sticker I made. As this is already in the game I decided to pull apart some of the elements and integrate them into a new design. Hence classy metal engraved fleurons, laurel leaves paired with gambling elements (diamonds, clubs, dollars), prison tattoo elements such as the trident, three dots (mi vida loca), tears (murders), scarab beetle (lucky for thieves), spiders web (lengthy prison sentence). I reused the knuckle duster crown as the player facing element. A sketch I made for an ‘OG’ motif sticker I never got around to making I used in outline form on the top and front. A dagger with ‘Original gangster’ crest also features on the top.

‘Death before dishonor’ is associated with criminal culture and features on the player facing side - if you buy a mac 10 you are pretty desperate and unlikely to want to keep it - hence many people will go on a suicide mission rather than keep it; I made a custom logotype for this - drawing the letters from scratch in illustrator, adding floral elements around it to tie in with the design below it.

The handle is a reworking of the thuglife logotype I made, it's slightly wider to accommodate the squat space, and also features minor woodblock ‘flicks’ on the stem sides.

All this was an exercise in creating a composition of tattoo elements. To juxtapose the thuggishness with the exquisite I decided to increase the plushness by using a leather material for the strap and rear handle which also features a criss-cross upholstered cushion pattern.

The end result is intentionally over the top, but I think it's quite amusing.
I always intended to use purple as it worked the best with it, but I’m aware of the ultraviolet finish which is a thorn in my side! Hopefully the two choices of metal and level of detail distance it enough.

Let me know what you think below: