Electric Ladyland

arc Ecko Is grinning as he checks out the latest results of his playboy photo session. "I should quit my day job," he says, laughing. Though he started out doing graffiti, the guy knows his legit artists, too. "This shoot Is an homage to Patrick Nagel." he says, referring to the playboy illustrator who went on to create the iconic cover for Duran Duran's Rio. "He struck a balance between artistic and illustrative com­position, as well as balancing the right amount of flesh with the right amount of styling." In this case Ecko brought the style and we brought the flesh, In the shapely form of Miss March 2006 Monica Leigh, Miss May 2007 Shan­non James and Cyber Girl Chemise Yvette. Because Ecko's an insatiable artist and entrepreneur who has made his mark In everything from fash-Ion (see his lines at shopecko.com) to magazines, animal rights, video games, fragrance and viral video (you can watch him tag Air Force One at stlllfree.com), we weren't surprised to find he'd had a fair amount of experi­ence with photography. "I got a lot of my creative spirit from my dad, who was a regular guy with some real pho­tographic chops. We'd turn the laun­dry room into a makeshift darkroom every weekend." But was the playboy shoot, you know, fun? "Are you kid­ding?" he says. "I got that giddy-llttle-boy laugh as soon as I found out I would get to do this."