A Campbell River tattoo studio had a surprise celebrity guest at their shop on Oct. 5.
"We got lucky," said Adam Wilson, who co-owns Radiant Tattoos with his wife, Lucy Rose. "We got a phone call and answered it and managed to set things up last minute."
The celebrity guest was Steve-O (born Stephen Glover), an American stunt performer and comedian mostly known for being a member of Jackass, an MTV reality comedy series and movies.
Wilson said Steve-O's assistant got in touch with Radiant Tattoos, looking for a studio where he could tattoo customers in a safe and professional space.
"The people who got tattooed are the ones who actually made this happen," said Wilson. "It wasn't anything we did. A lot of people are trying to congratulate us and say you guys did awesome, but realistically, we didn't do anything. It was the clients who did this that made this happen, and we were just fortunate to be able to facilitate it. So, thanks to the clients and this community too, because if this committee didn't hype us up so much and do so much for this and love Steve-O so much, this wouldn't have happened."
Months ago, Steve-O announced the Crash And Burn tour with dates in Canada, including Campbell River. During the tour, he said he would tattoo people in select cities depending on people applying for it. Two people from Campbell River applied. Radiant was approached by the assistant to make sure the time slot was available, and once that was sorted, the clients were contacted. They did not know it was happening until that moment.
Steve-O was supposed to be there by 2 p.m., but the taxi service was running behind, so Wilson had to pick him up from his hotel.
"We spent about an hour and 45, almost two hours, with him while he did tattoos," said Wilson. "We did all the setup for the tattoos, he did the tattoos, and then we walked away when he started because those clients paid for that time with him."
Wilson and Rose also tidied up in between clients and set up a new station for Steve-O. After the second client, he had to head to the Tidemark Theatre to do a sound check for his show.
"It was amazing. He is a lot better of a human being than I could have ever imagined," said Wilson about the experience. "I'm sure a lot of people who went to the show would understand that too. But having him in person, he was more than amazing. He was generous, he was friendly, and just brought a lot of life we too. We were all tense and nervous, and he's the one breaking the ice for us and creating the laughs, and having fun with us, making things comfortable for everyone."
Wilson said Steve-O wasn't tattooing as a comedy gag and was putting his heart and soul into the work. He said it was pretty cool to see.
"He even did one of the best tattoos he's ever done at our studio and was very excited about it, so we got to see that little spark of success and share that with him."
The tattoo was the Jackass logo.
Wilson said he spent most of his life skateboarding and watching Jackass, idolizing Steve-o, and intended on attending the show at the Tidemark, so far as putting it in his calender.
He planned on attending the show with a sign asking Steve-O to let him tattoo him at the shop. However, he and his wife were not able to attend the show and ended up taking it off the calendar.
"A couple of days later, he called me and I had to put it right back in," Wilson. "It was pretty amazing to get that phone call. I didn't think it was real at first, but once they sent us an email confirming everything, that's when it started to really sink in. Sheer struck of luck."
He never did get to ask to tattoo Steve-O due to time constraints.
