People stuck their arm in a hole and let a tattoo artist ink what they wanted

'I think there is a bit of magic there in the exchange, the drawing-a-card-out-of-the-deck dynamic'

Thursday 19 November 2015 10:18 EST

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For a new project, tattoo artist Scott Campbell offered strangers free tattoos through a ‘hole in the wall’ system.

A lottery determined which 25 people would be lucky (?) enough to get inked, all of whom were completely in the dark as to what substational tattoo he would be putting on their forearm.

In fairness, their blind faith was pretty well-placed, given Campbell is a revered tattooist, having worked on the skin of Marc Jacobs, Penelope Cruz, Orlando Bloom and more.

Even so, some participants looked a little nervous:

The tattoos that came out of the ‘Whole Glory’ project range from, in my opinion, the pretty elegant (snake) to the ‘i’m so glad that’s not on my arm forever’ (eye with a heart). Many of them referenced the trust the participants had shown.

“I think there is a bit of magic there in the exchange, the drawing-a-card-out-of-the-deck dynamic,” Campbell told the New York Times of the experience.

“As a tattoo artist, you never have absolute freedom in what you create. Your canvas always has an opinion on what is going on them, which is great because sometimes you get inspired by the person, and the piece becomes a reaction to them.”