He Duct-Taped A Tattoo Machine To His Hand And Jumped Out Of A Plane
Funky Matas is a 38-year-old tattoo artist from the United States who has now tattooed himself at 15,002 feet during freefall, while traveling at approximately 120 miles per hour, in cold enough conditions that his primary technical concern was keeping the ink from freezing before he could use it. He accomplished this on June 8, 2026, above Lake Wales, Florida, duct-taping the tattoo machine to his hand before jumping so it would not fly off in freefall, and etching the word FLY onto his hand before pulling his parachute. Guinness World Records has certified the attempt as the highest altitude skydive whilst performing a self-tattoo, a record category that also did not exist before Funky decided it should. He described his reasoning for attempting it with characteristic brevity: he loves adrenaline, tattoos, and rebellion, and therefore it was, in his words, a no brainer.
The process of setting up the attempt involved calling multiple skydiving companies, most of which declined to have anything to do with it, before Jump Florida Skydive agreed to open their doors to what Funky described as the only wild ones. The night before the jump, he practiced fake tattooing himself with a large fan blowing directly in his face to simulate freefall conditions. He chose a short word deliberately: FLY was appropriate given the setting and also practical given the time available, the cold, and the limited ink supply. Looking at the finished result, he said: considering we were going about 120 miles an hour, I think it came out pretty good. It is definitely legible. This is Funky's second Guinness record. He previously set the title for most celebrity signatures tattooed on the body by a male, with 273 names covering his back, including 50 Cent, Will Smith, Bad Bunny, Martha Stewart, Logan Paul, and KSI. He said breaking the skydive record lit a fire under him to keep going, and promised the world will see more of him soon with some crazy ideas. If past behavior is any guide, that seems like an accurate forecast.
