From tattoos to faeces, these are the creative lengths fans went in order to impress their idols
(Words: Woody Cecilia)
Music fans have it tough. When given the chance to come face-to-face with your idols, what’s the next step? Pretend they’re not there, or visibly combust at the sheer sight of them? Never meet your heroes, right?
But in today’s world, we know more about everyone than ever before. The internet allows you to shamelessly ‘follow’ virtually any musician on the planet, minus the air miles. So it can be a little distorting when it comes to meeting these guys IRL, face to face. What should you say? What should you do?
Some pull off their chance encounters with BAFTA-worthy excellence, while others choose to make an epic fool of themselves. Here are the extreme lengths fans have gone to when meeting their idols.
Caught backstage at a show in New York a few summers ago, DeMarco was introduced to a fan who was “trying to go above and beyond,” as the Canadian puts it. “She gave me this jar filled with formaldehyde, and on the pig foetus, she’d tattooed a picture of me as a mermaid. Pretty weird!” he tells Skidrow Studios. “It’s kind of crazy, but she’s an aspiring tattoo artist, so you don’t wanna go ahead and just start tattooing people – you gotta practice on a canvas. Sometimes that ‘canvas’ is a pig foetus carcass. Some day little Ether will be a great tattoo artist!” If concerned about the mermaid foetus jar’s whereabouts, fear not! It’s in good hands, retiring a backseat in his lucky booking agent’s office.
A bold move, and one that required two of Gaga’s trained dancers to swiftly swing their stage invader back into the crowd. It was a smooth operation by all accounts which could have gone unnoticed, had it not been caught on film during a 2010 concert. Aside from the fan’s jaunty landing, it’s those ‘Bad Romance’ lyrics that probably hurt the most, as Gaga continued her set unscathed, singing “I don’t wanna be friends” on loop. Ouch.
In September 2013, the proximity of Beyoncé’s presence at the Morumbi Stadium frazzled one fan to such a degree, he resorted to grabbing the singer by the shoulders in an effort to shimmy her into the crowd. This time round, a security guard saved the day, helping Bey back to her feet. Her rendition of ‘Irreplaceable’ resumed without fault.
44 year-old Carl McCoid from East Yorkshire decided to spend over £500 on his Miley Cyrus inspired body art, having been through a difficult divorce. He explained that her lyrics helped him through this hard time in his life, and that his tattoos were his way of paying tribute to the singer. “I am hoping that Miley’s agent will hear about me via Twitter, and then she will pass the message on to Miley,” he explained to Daily Mail.
In a bid to get the Chicago rapper’s attention, Linda Resa legally changed her name to Kanye Resa West. At the time, the 33-year-old remained candid about her motivation behind doing such a thing, claiming: “In April 2011, I legally changed my name so that I could use my name to get the man that I really love. I was doing it to stand out, to get his attention.” Yep, that’ll do it.
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