INK FOR THE LITTLEST CREW

STEP ASIDE, ubiquitous Ed Hardy. Legendary Irish inkster Mark Mahoney has lent his striking signature tats to Baby Eggi, a line of tees for kids.

“I wanted to stick with simple, streamlined designs that don’t scream out,” says Mahoney, who’s festooned the biceps of Johnny Depp and Drew Barrymore and owns the tattoo parlor Shamrock Social Club in Hollywood. (In the ’80s, Betsy Johnson commissioned his art for leggings, soon to be reissued.)

The kids tees – featuring old-school drawings of dragons and tigers, among other designs – come in various styles, including baseball jerseys for boys and pastel-hued, puffed-sleeve tees for girls.

The line’s co-founder, Jennifer Ahn-Newman, who oversees Martin Scorsese’s film preservation society, conceived of the collection after lamenting the lack of hip, well-priced garb for tots.

“I didn’t want to spend $40 on a T-shirt for my son to grow out of,” she says. (Indeed, an Ed Hardy kid’s hoodie sells for $128.) Baby Eggi tops sell for $18, and the company donates 20% of sales to charity; you pick the nonprofit organization when you purchase the clothes online at Babyeggi.com. For Mahoney, dad to two young girls, the ink doesn’t run in the family.

“I’m pretty old school about tattoos,” he says. “My daughters know that they can’t get one until they turn 18.”

 monica.corcoran@latimes.com