 What's shaking? My name's Cam. Welcome back to another video. If this is your first time here, first of all, welcome. Second of all, I make videos every week on books and writing. So if that's something that interests you, you might want to stick around. So I get a bunch of comments every now and then asking me about my tattoos. Yeah, that's right. I'm a big bad tattoo boy. I love almost everything about tattoos. I love the art styles. I love the culture of tattoos. In a weird way, I even love the experience of getting a tattoo. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who says, Tattoos don't even hurt, bro. They do, but there is something really fun and exhilarating about waking up and knowing that by the time you go back to bed at the end of the day, you're going to have something new and permanent on your skin. It hurts getting tattoos, but the adrenaline rush that you get from it, from the pain, is actually kind of addictive as well. The adrenaline rush also takes a lot out of you. It's actually really, really exhausting. So it's not uncommon to get sleepy during a tattoo and feel like you're about to doze off. Sounds super weird. I know, but it's true. Anyway, I grew up as a part of the skateboarding and hardcore music scene. So tattoos have been a big part of my life, at least socially, for a really, really long time. Today, I'm going to show you all of the tattoos that I have as of right now, which I've been looking forward to doing for so, so long. I think I said like two years ago that I wanted to do a tattoo tour, but there were so many tattoos I wanted to get first, and now I feel like I'm at a place where I have enough to actually kind of show off. Plus, another thing that I think is really cool about doing these tattoo tour videos is that in the future, when I have even more tattoos, I can kind of update it as I go. I'm not one of those people who thinks that all of your tattoos need to have a really deep meaning. That's just not really me. I think obviously give it a lot of thought first. It is on you forever, but if you really like the artwork, if you think it looks cool, I say go for it. With that said, most of the tattoos that I have, not all of them, but most of them, do have at least some kind of special or sentimental meaning to me. All that and plus, tattoos make me look like a bad boy. So I got my first tattoo pretty much as soon as I could, and if I was to describe it in a few words, I would say corny as hell, but could have been worse. I was finally old enough to start looking more like the musicians that I idolized, and my favorite movie at the time was Boondock Saints. So bingo, bingo, I ended up with the Latin word for equality on my arm. Like I said, a bit corny, but could have been worse. There was a guy I went to high school with who got the word death on his arm, on his forearm in the same spot in really bold letters, which, you know, is a bit, well, it's a bit grim. So it has been more than half a decade since I got my second tattoo, and I feel like someone's going to point this out. So I'm just going to go ahead and say it. It's not finished yet. I need to get it finished. I know, but every time I think about the idea of going to the tattoo shop, all I can think about is my next new tattoo. I just get distracted. On my right upper arm, I have Medusa from Greek mythology. Since getting this tattoo, I've become very aware of how common this tattoo is on people. Some people have even teased me a bit about that, and because, and because there's some snakes that haven't been colored in yet. There are a few different interpretations of Medusa as a character and how she came to be what she is. But my favorite is probably the version where she is a priestess for Athena. And she's known for just being incredibly beautiful, one of the most beautiful women in all the lands. Every single dude around the temple were thirsting for this bird, my guy. She had simps lining up around the block. Anyway, someone like Medusa, someone as fine as her, someone as slim, thick as her, isn't going to shack up with just any old scrub. So she let the god of the sea, the absolute Chad that is Poseidon, hit that. Now, Athena didn't like her priestess shagging around when she'd done a vow of celibacy, messing up the brand, you know? So she cursed Medusa to become the hideous creature that we know now. And any man who would lay eyes upon her would turn to stone. I was a huge fan of both Greek and Egyptian mythology growing up, mainly because there was this book at my school library, at my primary school that turned all of these mythological stories into illustrated masterpieces. But anyway, I originally wanted a complete sleeve on my right arm of Greek mythology. That didn't really end up happening, but I did end up getting one more Greek mythology tattoo on my forearm. I got a bit of a gritty depiction of the iconic Cyclops. Cyclops in the most popular stories were basically just a creature or a race of creatures, much like giants in fantasy books. However, it might interest you to know that in getting this tattoo, I was mainly thinking of this story from Greek mythology about these three Cyclops brothers, Brontes, Starropes and Argus, the three Cyclops brothers who forged the lightning bolts for Zeus. Anyway, under the Cyclops, it says an eye for an eye, mainly because I thought the words have a bit of a funny irony when you pair it with a one-eyed creature. I haven't gotten any other Greek mythology tattoos at this point, but in the future, I wouldn't mind one dedicated to the Titan Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the humans. He was punished by Zeus by being chained up to a large boulder. And then every single day an eagle or a vulture, depending on who you're talking to, will come down and eat his liver. And then at the end of the day, he would heal so we can go through it all over again tomorrow. I just really love that story. Now, the biggest and most painful tattoo I have ever gotten is my chest piece. It's pretty cool, in my opinion. It's a raven with its wings spread and there's some diamond geometry in there as well. There's also a Fleur-de-lis, which was the artist's idea because it centers the design really well and works with the diamonds. I also really love the Fleur-de-lis because one of my favorite time periods is the French Renaissance. So the next one is one of my most recent tattoos, but in my opinion, one of my most best done ones, maybe even the best done one, and it's inspired by one of my all-time favorite characters from the comics, Hellblazer, John Fookin Constantine, bad ass chain smoking, shit talking, bisexual, sorcerer slash warlock. Here we have Johnny Boy sending a demon back to hell while smoking a silk cut and holding his trusty, holy shotgun. You might know Constantine from Keanu Reeves' version in the movie, which to be honest, is a much more restrained and mopey example of the character. But to be fair, I'm kind of OK with that. I actually really like the movie. The real Constantine, though, the one that you just really can't go past, the Constantine is Matt Ryan's version. Fun fact, Castiel's outfit in the show Supernatural is directly inspired by Constantine. Also, I know technically in the comments, it's explained that it's meant to be pronounced Constantine, but even the creators, the movies and the TV shows have accepted by now that Constantine just kind of sounds better. It's basically been retconned, so that's how we say it now. There's not much more to say. John Constantine is just the epitome of cool to me. Finishing up on my right arm or specifically my right hand is potentially my favorite tattoo. At least it's inspired by one of my absolutely favorite things. And that is the door to Bag End. Obviously, I could talk for hours about my love for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, but I feel like you know that already. I never shut up about it. The story starts with a hole in the ground and in that hole is a hobbit. This door is the door that took me into my favorite story of all time. The story that inspired me to be a reader, to be a writer, which happens to be my life passion. This door is the most important door in the world to me. On my left hand, I have a quill, which should be pretty easy to figure out. I am a writer. It's what I love most. It's what I want to do with my life. That's really all there is to it for that one. Another one of my most recent tattoos was this cute as hell, fancy little penguin here. I really love this tattoo because it's one of the ones that you can see entirely if you're looking at me front on. It's dedicated to Fleetwood Mac, one of my favorite bands of all time. Now, they aren't my number one favorite band, but their music, more than most others, helped me to get through a really hard part in my life. I must have listened to Rihanna and Seven Wonders and Dreams like a billion times in the space of just a couple of months for a while there. I do want to get a lot more music themed tattoos because music is a really important thing to me as well. For now, though, I'm just happy with my fancy little penguin. The penguin doesn't have a name yet, though. You want to help me out? Leave your name suggestion for the fancy penguin in the comments below. On my left arm, I have a three musketeers tattoo. It's one of my all time favorite classic books, and I think it still holds up today. The strong themes of brotherhood and absolute loyalty in that story had a really big impact on me as a child and really does stick with me even to this day. Now, I know technically there's four musketeers. There's D'Artagnan, Aramis, Arthos and Porthos. But the title is three musketeers, so that's why there's only three swords there. Four brothers bound by friendship are fighting together, wooing women together and getting into death jewels over insanely arbitrary things together. By the way, really quickly, the TV show Musketeers is insanely underrated. You definitely should watch it if you're a fan, not the movie, though. Don't watch the movie. The movie is absolute garbage. I also have a Sherlock Holmes tattoo. If you've been watching my channel for a while, you'll know that I'm a huge fan of the whole Sherlock Holmes empire. It's another really brilliant classic book series that is just as entertaining today as I imagine it was back then. The episodic mysteries and the bromance of Holmes and Watson is absolutely timeless and so fantastically characterized that you can reread stories even if you know the twist, pretty much just for the banter. I really do love pretty much all of the different versions of Sherlock Holmes in like media, even the super jacked Henry Cavill Sherlock Holmes. I mean, come on, how can you hate that guy? I have a 1408 tattoo, as I'm sure most of you know, it's my absolute favorite horror. It was one of the big inspirations for the book I have coming out next month. Welcome to scent. Now, I know it's not the best made horror. I know it's not the scariest far from it, even. But it was one of the very first horror films I saw that wasn't just a slasher or a weird creature or a monster or a ghost. The psychological horror elements in that in that story 1408 is what really blew my mind. And to be honest, I think that was the main gateway for me into a love for horror that preys more on the mind rather than the body. Now, the next tattoo is the most recent tattoo I've gotten. It's the very last one I've gotten. And it's probably one of the most sentimental ones I have. It's this one here. It's a skateboard worn and used. And across it says the words, glory days. Becoming a skateboarder in high school was one of the very first times that I actually felt like I was part of a community. It was one of the first times I really felt like I belonged somewhere. Skateboarding and the culture and the people involved changed my life. They really did. I had absolutely no self-confidence pretty much before then. I couldn't really talk to anyone, especially girls. I'm still not great at it, but skateboarding gave me confidence and it found me a group of people that to this day are my very best friends. Those really were the best days of my life. They were my glory days. Plus, the song by Bruce Springsteen is it's a banger. So those are all my tattoos as of right now. But I imagine in the future, I will I'll have a bunch more. And when I do, I will make a part two. Let me know what you think. I hope you like my tattoos anyway. If you don't, there's there's not really much I can do about it. Let me know if you have any special tattoos. Let me know if any of your tattoos have a special meaning. And thank you for watching, especially if you watch this far in the video. I really do appreciate it. Thank you. I know I always say that at the end of these videos, but I do have a nice day. Guys, catch you.