The ScaryGuy.
In 1997, a tattoo artist living in Tucson, Arizona, left his life behind to go on a nomadic quest to eliminate hate and violence worldwide. Twenty-nine years later, we wanted to check on how he was doing.
Watch the film.
Full documentary · 9m 39sBehind
the
window.
The film reconnects with The Scary Guy almost three decades after he left Tucson and began a nomadic mission centred on confronting hate and violence.
Red Boots filmed him in Wigan town centre and at his Market Street home and studio, where he sits in the window as a living art piece. The documentary is less interested in the character people imagine from the outside than in the person behind it — and the distance between assumption and connection.
I have been walking past the Scary’s Tattoo sign on the way into Wigan town centre for years. Often, I would look through the window and make my own unconscious assumptions about him. I found myself imagining the stories a guy like that must have, building a character in my head of who this man was and what had led him to settle in Wigan.
It took bumping into Scary on the way to get lunch — and halfway jumping out of my skin — and making that initial human connection with him to realise just how wrong I had been.
Since that day, the process of making The Scary Guy has felt like trying to pilot a snowball rolling downhill. It has taken off in a way that I genuinely didn’t think my work could at this stage of my career.
This project has been amazing from start to finish, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.
VisionHeart Ltd.
VisionHeart Ltd is Scary’s business and collaborated with Red Boots on the documentary as a co-production partner.
The company also supports the project’s distribution, helping the film reach audiences beyond the initial production.
