14 DAY TRIAL // Face tattoos are no longer that uncommon, even though most people, be they celebrities or not, still choose other, less visible parts of the body to get inked. Famous models with extensive body and facial art are not unheard of either, and you don’t have to look farther than Zombie Boy (Rick Genest), the muse for Lady Gaga and designer Thierry Mugler, for an example.
Still, where Zombie Boy is famous for tattooing his face to look like a skull, another model, this time from Canada, is hoping to achieve the same level of fame through random words he’s had inked on his pretty face and ripped body.
His name is Vin Los and he’s 24 years old. Like any young man, he dreams of achieving fame and riches beyond words, but he has an actual plan on how to get them: as you might have guessed, it includes his getting what’s already been named the dumbest tattoos all over his body.
Tattoos are considered art because they can be very elaborate, complex, and beautiful. They’re also supposed to hold a special meaning for the owner, which is why anyone with a tattoo would jump if you dared to criticize him or her for getting “scarred for life.”
Vin is doing this whole tattooing thing completely in reverse: he chooses random words to have inked on his body, words that mean nothing to him except another step in the direction of becoming more famous.
He is a very handsome individual, so he would have probably been a model even without all his ink. With it, though, he knows he will make an impression because – think about it? – how can you forget a gorgeous face with the words “Fame” and “Guilty” on the forehead? How can you not remember that handsome guy you saw who had possibly the world’s dumbest tattoos?
Speaking of which, Vin also has fake hair tattooed on his chest, his own name further down his torso, name of cities he never visited on his arms and on the crown of his head, and words like “iconic face” on his cheek.
In an interview with Vice magazine, Vin says his transformation, though voluntary, is not for himself but for the world, because he’s creating a celebrity through it. He’s basically sacrificing himself.
“Drawings don’t mean anything to me. It may sound like I have bad values or something, but my tattoos aren’t just for me. I want to be an image for people to look at, something that has an impact. Everybody who sees me is bound to ask questions: ‘Why fame? What’s his life like?’,” he explains.
He doesn’t plan on answering these questions because he wants to add more ink to his already impressive collection. In a few years’ time, because of his collection of words, he will be the embodiment of our times.
“A lot of people ask me if I’m scared I might regret it one day. If I was indecisive, I don’t think I would write on my face. […] I want to embody pop culture. You could look at me in a hundred years from now and really get the idea of what pop culture was like in the early 2010s,” he says.
If he ever does come to regret his decision, the feeling might prove overwhelming.
You will find two modeling shots of Vin in the gallery below. Because many will have trouble believing any person would willingly tattoo themselves with random words, especially on the face, the video below, posted by Vin on YouTube, proves that all his ink is real.
