Under The Stars

There was no communication between Campbell and his subjects, who had their name drawn from a lottery in order to participate. He had a plan for all of the tattoos ahead of time, but once each and every arm was in front of him, he suddenly felt his choice was wrong for that particular person and changed the design. 

“I’d sit there, and I’d shave the arm, and I’d clean it off, and I’d be like, ‘It’s not right.’ Every single one, I changed my mind last minute.”

After 4 days of blind-trust tattooing, Campbell finally came out from behind the wall and invited everyone he’d tattooed to a dinner, where he was able to meet them and see their reactions.

Though they were all complete strangers, many felt they’d become instantly connected to everyone involved.

“We’re bonded for life.”

Whether it was pure intuition on his part, or forced acceptance on their part, it turned out that the participants thought their tattoos suited them perfectly, for personal reasons.

“Not to take away from my being a psychic genius, but I think it has a similar flavor to when you read a horoscope and it’s spot on. O.K., so did that horoscope just prophesize how your day unfolds, or was it sitting there, waiting for you to read it?”

At the dinner, participants drank wine from Campbell’s own label and inspected all the tattoos, feeling certain they would have been sadly mismatched if they’d ended up with one of the other designs.

“I need to let you know that I totally feel the gravity of what you guys offered me. I really, really appreciate it.“