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Joe Petagno (born January 1, 1948 - ) is an artist known principally for creating images used on heavy metal album covers, for bands such as Motörhead, Marduk, Nightshade, and Illdisposed.

Petagno was born in Portland, Maine and left the United States in 1972. He worked with Hipgnosis before meeting Motörhead's Lemmy in 1975, he designed "Snaggletooth" for the band's Motörhead album and has continued to design the majority of the album and single sleeve covers for the band. He is also (lesser) known for his science fiction book covers, notably for the Corgi SF Collector's Library edition of Ray Bradbury's The Silver Locusts aka The Martian Chronicles. He also creates non-heavy metal album covers.

In 1979, Petagno went with a travelling exhibition, sponsored by the Shah of Iran, visiting France and meeting his partner, Sanne, in Denmark, where he has lived ever since.

He has published Orgasmatron, The Heavy Metal Art of Joe Petagno, which has a foreword by Lemmy and an introduction by Steffan Chirazi. It covers his work with Hipgnosis, designing for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and Motörhead. Also contains reproductions of paintings on display in Denmark.

Petagno appeared in a rare interview on the bonus DVD when Motörhead re-issued their Inferno album as a 30th Anniversary Birthday Edition. (read more...)