Brave Souls Get Mystery Tattoos From Celeb Artist

How far would you go for the sake of art? Would you volunteer your body as a canvas, without seeing the paintbrush or who's holding it? For 25 lucky and/or infinitely brave volunteers willing to be the people who got mystery tattoos, "all the way" was the answer.

Celebrity tattoo artist Scott Campbell got ink and art fans together in New York City's Milk Studios this past week to partake in a live art show. The show was titled "Whole Glory" (not to be confused with Glory Hole, but most certainly a nod), and was described as an active meditation on artistic freedom and control. In the tattoo industry, Campbell admits that it can sometimes be frustrating to be limited artistically to what his clients request. It's rare that he has the opportunity to follow his intuitive inspiration, considering the permanent nature and caution of the medium.

Participants, chosen in a random lottery, sat in a chair and slipped their arm through a hole cut in the wall to have their forearm tattooed with a mystery design, completely up to the digression and inspiration of Campbell. And these were no small tattoos — they covered 3/4 of the participants forearms and took at least an hour and a half to complete.

One thing is clear from the reaction of the participants, they're big fans of Scott's work and happy to take a risk for the sake of being a part of his art. But is a free tattoo by a celebrity artist appealing enough to give up some visible prime real estate on your forearm?

For these folks, the answer is clear: yes.

Images: Courtesy of Elcartel_jeweler, VanceGarrett/Instagram