Scott Campbell is a world-renowned tattoo artist that has inked celebrities like Orlando Bloom, Josh Hartnett, Penelope Cruz and Marc Jacobs. Campbell’s work with ink and needle is so well respected that dozens of people were willing to get tattoos by him without even seeing what he was doing.
In a project called “Whole Glory,” Campbell invited around 25 people to try their luck with a random tattoo. Kind of like the infamous “Glory Hole” so popular in truck-stops and porn films. But there were no blowjobs here! Only tattoos. Participants in Campbell’s tattoo project were chosen by lottery and paid nothing for their new ink. Each person was given the opportunity to stick an arm through a hole in a wall and Campbell would whip up a tattoo of his choice.
Many of the tattoos that Campbell drew were so large they covered most of the participants’ forearms. The participants had to wait to see their tattoos until they were completely finished to see what they looked like, though I’m sure they could feel Campbell working on their skin throughout. Despite the high stakes and tense suspense, most of the participants remained calm whilst they got blindly inked.
When their arms emerged from the tattoo “Whole Glory”, the brave participants discovered that their skin had been permanently adorned with designs like a skull, a snake, an eyeball and a rose. One person received a tattoo featuring the phrase “no bad news” and another got a skull wearing a headband that said “trust.” In the end, many of the participants put their arms together for a group tattoo photo.
