040 - Scott Campbell
“The courage to say ‘yes,’ and let it change you.”
Jason talks with Scott Campbell and Roger Sparks for Episode 040 about their chance meeting in 2010 in Afghanistan, how those experiences changed both their lives, and the overall power of tattooing. It is a raw and vulnerable conversation about grief, pain, memory and catharsis -- the role reversal of an artist dropping in to help rescue the rescuers.
Scott Campbell never imagined he could be an artist, but happened into the hard trade of tattoo art and talks about how it commands your focus -- how each tattoo is a process of wanting to quit but seeing it through anyway. He traveled to Bagram in November of 2010 with Casey Neistat to try to “rediscover tattooing that mattered.” By happenstance, Scott met Pararescueman (PJ) Roger just after Operation Bulldog Bite and wound up tattooing Roger and his team as they began to process those events and the “grief inherited by people who project violence to solve problems.”
Scott talks about how humbled he was to be useful and how he found more meaning than he could have possibly predicted. Roger too was forever changed by their encounter -- not just the coordinates on his forearm and birds on his chest -- but by becoming a tattoo artist himself and discovering the catharsis and power of carving into skin. They both speak about the therapeutic benefits of tattoo and how their relationship continues to challenge and change them.
Links:
“Warrior’s Creed” by Roger Sparks
Vlog by Casey Neistat
San Francisco Star Course on 8/14/21