The (Brief) Story Behind the Primate Social Society

3 min readOct 20, 2021

“If you would’ve told me I’d give away $250,000 three weeks ago…

I would’ve told you that you were full of shit.”

Forlane, one of the Primate Social Society (PSS) founders, shared that last night. He went on to share more of the details behind the project and what inspired his partner, Knifebebe (a female tattoo artist), to launch the sold-out project.

“Four months ago, I decided to take a break from our tattoo studio to avoid burnout and evaluate the future of our brand.” As a result of having time to pursue hobbies again, he got back into playing video games.

After a couple of months reconnecting with some old friends online and remembering his love of gaming, he decided to see if there was a way to make gaming a paid hobby that could also build the tattoo shop’s brand.

“I wanted this side venture to be independent of funding from the tattoo shop. So I started looking into Crypto and noticed there was a way to invest and play games at the same time.”

Enter NFT’s.

After researching what the successful NFT projects were doing, he realized several key things were missing within the space:

Female Artists
Development Teams that Cared for Their Communities (& The Earth)
Genuine Quality Art with Detail

He showed Knifebebe some of the art selling for tens of thousands just to see her reaction. “THAT sold for $50,000? I could totally make art like that, but in my style!” she said.

“So we thought, ‘Why not? People with less ambition and skills are doing really well for themselves. Let’s try it.”

This conversation only happened about three months ago. Now Forlane, Knifebebe, and the entire PSS community have successfully given over $250,000 to different charitable causes. We’ve helped plant more than 50,000 trees (enough to offset minting 215,000 NFTs!) And helped one of our devs, Kadory, safely relocate out of Iraq. More on Kadory’s story coming soon!

So, with all that, what’s coming up next?

Forlane, Knifebebe, and the PSS Dev Team have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to build even more utility into the project. One such way is through the upcoming $ilverback Program. We’re excited to present a sneak peak of this program, which will allow community members to “burn” five apes giving them the newly-created, King of the Jungle, $ilverback!

Each $ilverback NFT will allow holders to earn PSS tokens or $ilver (utility coins) which they can use to unlock perks, prizes, artwork, and more from within the Primate Social Society Ecosystem. Also in the pipeline: Kitten Companions, Gorilla Companions, Baby Apes and more coming soon!!