Adrenaline junkie Funky tattoos himself during skydive freefall in latest wild stunt
An adrenaline junkie has broken a record by giving himself a tattoo whilst hurtling towards the ground in a skydive!
Funky Matas (USA) jumped from 4,572.91 metres (15,002.98 ft), inking the world “FLY” on to his hand while he was in freefall to claim the record for highest altitude skydive whilst performing a self tattoo.
He staged his incredible stunt in Lake Wales, Florida, USA, on 8 June.
“I love adrenaline, tattoos and rebellion - so it was a no brainer for me,” the 38-year-old tattoo artist said as he explained why he took on this attempt.
“It was a pretty extensive process because we had to call multiple skydiving companies because none of them were brave enough to allow this to happen.
“We eventually ended up with Jump Florida Skydive as they were the only wild ones to open their doors to us. I practised fake tattooing myself with a huge fan blowing wind in my direction just to see how it felt and how much steadiness I needed the night before the actual jump.
“The day of the jump, they explained how to jump in all of the precautions I needed to take, and then we proceeded to duct tape the machine to my hand so that it didn’t fly off while I was at freefall. The rest is history.”
Funky said one of the most difficult parts of tattooing himself in freefall was keeping the ink from freezing. Obviously unable to top up the ink in his machine, he had a limited amount to work with. And he had to work quickly before the wind on that cold day froze the only ink he had.
He chose to tattoo the word “FLY” on his hand because it was appropriate for him being up in the air, but says it didn’t hurt that it was such a short word.
He laughed: “Considering we were going about 120 miles an hour I think it came out pretty good! It’s definitely legible.”
Read about more amazing tattoo records in our Human Body section.
Funky hopes to send an important message with his record.
He said: “The message I just sent with my record or with anything I do is that anything is possible. It’s not what you want, but how bad you want it.
The tattoo just after landing
“So, if I can achieve something like this, then anyone else looking to achieve their goals, whether it be quitting their job and chasing their passion or breaking another world record, I hope they get some courage by seeing the things that I’ve done."
This is Funky’s second tattoo record. He previously claimed the title for most signatures tattooed on the body (male) with a total of 273.
The tattoo all healed up
His back is covered in signatures, including some from very high profile celebrities like 50 Cent, Will Smith, Bad Bunny and even our very own Jyoti Amge, the world’s shortest woman.
Since claiming his first title, Funky has got a lot of attention and admits that it’s just spurred him on to break even more records.
He said: “After breaking this world record, some sort of fire has been lit under my butt that has made me want to continue breaking more world records. So I’m sure you guys and the world are going to see a lot more of me coming soon with some crazy ideas!”
Funky has also added a few new celebrity autographs to his back since we verified his last record. Martha Stewart, Logan Paul and KSI are among the latest famous faces to etch their names on to his skin.