- Looking in the mirror every morning must be an interesting experience for this guy.
Most people wouldn’t tattoo things that disgust them on their bodies. But music producer Michael Amoia doesn’t subscribe to such common logic.
The 48-year-old Amoia recently broke the official Guinness world record for most insects tattooed on his body. As confirmed on October 28, 2021, Amoia sports a total of 864 insect all over his skin.
From all those bugs, you’d imagine the man simply loves are creeping and crawling creature on Earth. But in reality, he can’t stand them.
“A lot of people think I like bugs — actually it’s the complete opposite. I’m afraid of bugs, I hate bugs,” Amoia said.
Then why does he keep tattooing insects all over himself? Amoia says he’s trying to send a message, but what exactly it is, he won’t divulge.
“It has multiple meanings, that’s why I put them all over my body. It’s some dark meaning, but more of a positive message,” he explained.
An Impressive Collection
The most common insect you can spot crawling on Amoia is an ant. In fact, an ant was his first tattoo which he got on his forearm in 1995, when he 21 years old.
“The first one I got was a red queen ant. She got pregnant and that’s where it all spawned,” he said.
The ant queen sure has been breeding enthusiastically. Amoia now has a total of 89 ants on his forearm.
When he ran out of room there, the ants started spreading elsewhere. There are a further 36 ants on his right bicep and another 23 on the back of his right calf.
It’s not just ants, though. Amoia also sports a 13-inch wide moth across his throat and chest, a 2.5-inch beetle over his left eye, a 2.5-inch earwig behind his right ear, an impressive dragonfly on his right temple, and multiple flies on his left foot.
Even that’s not enough, though. There are also several spiders and scorpions, alongside two gigantic millipedes on him.
The millipede on his chest measures 17 inches wide and 19 inches long. The second millipede, crawling along Amoia’s back, is a staggering 50 inches long.
There are also various other worms, millipedes, centipedes… A lot of bugs.
However, these latter tattoos didn’t count towards the Guinness world record due to a technicality. After all, they aren’t insects — spiders and scorpions are arachnids, while millipedes are myriapods.
Bugs for the Win
Needless to say, Amoia’s unique appearance attracts plenty of attention when he ventures outdoors. He says people are always coming up to talk to him about “his work,” but he doesn’t seem too bothered by it.
“I guess I have to expect it. But when they learn about my story they start to formulate a completely different opinion of me,” Amoia said.
“Hopefully I can open up some people’s minds so they can realize, you know, there’s a few ways to look at things and don’t judge a book by its cover, I guess.”
You might not expect a man covered in insects to have a successful career, but Amoia definitely teaches us, as he said, to not judge him by his looks. The man has been working as a music producer for 26 years and has collaborated with such big-name stars as Beyoncé.
Amoia also works in TV and has been a music producer, director, or editor on shows like Fear Factor, MTV Cribs, Chappelle’s Show, and Pawn Stars.
His efforts have been recognized, too. Amoia has a grand total of eight Emmy Awards for outstanding technical and editing work.
“It’s always funny because any time I put these [tattoos] on [my body] everybody said it would deter me from getting a job or making any sort of real money. Now, 20-something years later, I’m using it to actually raise money and awareness,” he said.
Amoia is a board member at For a Bright Future, a foundation that seeks to help underprivileged and underrepresented children. He hopes to create NFTs of his tattoos to raise money for the organization.
“My tattoos have a personal meaning to me as it takes me back to my childhood, and I figure it’s a nice full circle story,” Amoia mused.