Mother's Milk - Artwork

Artwork

Mother's Milk features a black and white photograph of the band sprawled across the arms of a proportionately larger naked woman. A rose conceals one of her nipples while Kiedis' standing body conceals the other. There were originally two women whose photographs were planned to be used, one being Kiedis' girlfriend Ione Skye and the other being model Alaine Dawn; the latter was ultimately chosen. Controversy arose, however, when Dawn claimed the band did not notify her that she was the one chosen to be on the cover of Mother's Milk. Furthermore, several national chains refused to sell the record because they believed the female subject displayed too much nudity. A more strictly censored version was manufactured for some retailers that featured the band members in far larger proportion than the original. The cover of the record was influenced by a promotional poster Kiedis had from the 1960s of Sly and the Family Stone, in which frontman Sly Stone held a miniaturized band in his palm. When Kiedis was finding shots of the band to use on the cover, Frusciante initially refused every photograph the vocalist showed him but settled on one of him sitting down laughing. Mother's Milk was affixed with an "explicit language" warning sticker that, according to Kiedis, "oesn't bother me. Our lyrics are very explicit, whether it's about sex or friendship or love for life in general." The cover booklet of the record features a painting by Hillel Slovak. Following the album's release, a limited number of promotional posters were issued with the model's breasts exposed. Dawn had no knowledge of the pressing and sued the band, winning a $50,000 settlement.

The singles for Mother's Milk followed a similar artistic theme. The cover of "Knock Me Down" featured the band shirtless, in front of a photograph of an elephant in an African setting. "Higher Ground" was similar in that all four members—photographs of which were taken from the music video—were printed in front of a large image of Kiedis' face. "Taste the Pain" featured the band together with a red and yellow background with the Chili Peppers' asterisk adjacent to the typeface.