This teen is tattooing himself 500 times in 500 days
A social media paradox in an inked up nutshell
The internet acts as a strange magnifying glass. It can grab a small project someone does on a whim and blow it up to terrifying proportions.
It happened with Jon May, the man who drank 2,000 pints in 2023, and it’s happening to Xander Fisher, a teen on a mission to give himself 500 tattoos in 500 days.
Yup, that’s right. 500 tattoos. 500 days.
Unsurprisingly, this caused a considerable amount of ruckus on TikTok, so I decided to get in touch with Fisher to find out more about this, uh, mission.
Fisher — who goes by Xan Gogh “in respect to Van Gogh” — is still in his teens and lives in Omaha, Nebraska. He tells me that the inspiration behind his challenge came from seeing people tattoo themselves on TikTok, including @bijan888, who is undertaking a similar journey.
So, Fisher got started. He “ordered a tattoo pen and all the supplies” and began inking his legs. The challenge started soon after. At the time of writing, he is on the 220th tattoo — although the daily part seems to have slowed down, as there are often some gaps between posts.
When I asked Fisher how he chooses his tattoos, he tells me there’s no overall plan, saying they’re usually spontaneous and off the top of his head.
“I keep the idgaf mentally for the most part,” he adds, helpfully.
The original plan was to give himself 365 tattoos — like @bijan888’s challenge — but Fisher expanded to 500 after the 128th day. You can’t get too much of a good thing, I guess.
The online reaction to his tattoo odyssey hasn’t been what he expected, with the internet resolutely divided over his actions.
“I have some cult-like fans tattooing ‘Xan Gogh’ on themselves,” Fisher says, but others think what he’s doing is irresponsible. And incredibly stupid. To be honest, that’s a pretty common thought, as a quick glance at any of the comments in his TikToks show:
This negative feedback bothered him to begin with, but Fisher tells me he changed his mindset. “I’ve tried my best to illustrate my plans for the future and my true thoughts and intentions, but they fall on deaf ears, so I’ve completely given up,” he says, “they’re just gonna have to sit back and watch now.”
I asked Fisher if he’s worried about getting this many tattoos in such a short space of time and such a young age.
“I’m not worried about having too many,” he says, “my biggest fear is not having enough.”
Honestly pal? I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.
I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about Fisher’s mission — or indeed social media’s role in it. Without TikTok he probably wouldn’t have had the idea to tattoo himself 500 times in 500 days, or received the sort of attention that’d drive him to actually complete it.
But is this necessarily a bad thing?
That, I guess, depends on your view of the project. It is an awful lot of low-effort tattoos to get at such a young age, but if you’re old enough to join the army, then surely this is less serious? It’s his body, after all — and he’s unlikely to die from being inked up.
The bit I struggle with most is balancing the micro/macro view of social media’s influence.
When we consider a single case like Fisher, him being influenced to get a lot of tattoos seems like a personal choice. Yet, suddenly, if tens of thousands of teens begin doing it, then it feels more like some sort of societal trend, something that could be damaging on a deeper scale.
It’s a strange inversion of that old phrase: the death of one is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic. Here though, a single person’s actions is choice, but millions is manipulation.
There’s a dissonance at the heart of social media. It normalises niche views by exposing them to the masses, but it also helps the isolated feel less alone. It lets people express their true selves, but is a negative influence. Really, it’s a modern paradox.
What came first? The tattoo? Or the desire to make a TikTok about it?