The band’s distinctive fanged-face logo, with its oversized boar’s tusks, chains, and spikes, was created by artist Joe Petagno in 1977 for the cover of the Motörhead album and has appeared in many variations on covers of ensuing albums. The fanged face has been referred to variously as “War-Pig” and “Snaggletooth”.
Snaggletooth is the fanged face that serves as the symbol of Motörhead. Artist Joe Petagno drew it in 1977 for the cover of the band’s debut album (with designer Phil Smee who turned it into a negative and did the lettering to complete the logo), having met Lemmy while doing some work with Hawkwind.[131][non-primary source needed] Petagno stated:
“The inspiration came from just being a naturally pissed-off bastard! And Lemmy’s the same way! So it was bound to be an alchemal wedding of a more “primordial nature”. I did a lot of research on skull types and found a cross-breed gorilla-wolf-dog combination would work nicely with some oversized boars horns. Lemmy added Helmet, chains, spit, spikes and grit.”
01 - Cover of “On Parole”, 1979.
02 - Cover of “Motörhead”, 1977.
03 - Cover of “Overkill”, 1979.
04 - Cover of “Scrifice”, 1995.
05 - Cover of “Rock ‘n’ Roll”, 1987.
