hi guys this is Scott Campbell um I am
so heartbroken that I’m sending you this
and I’m not there in person but my my
wife’s water just broke
and um we it’s the next 24 hours are
going to be interesting but I really
wish I could be there doing a TED talk
is a dream of mine for a long time
everyone asked me to draw pictures
nobody wants to hear what I have to say
but um I’m sorry I can’t be there I’m
gonna send a video that we shot while
rehearsing yesterday and hopefully that
does it for you thanks guys so I was one
of these countless kids in the 80s that
was diagnosed with attention deficit
disorder now I have my own opinions as
to whether or not it should even be
considered a deficit or a disorder I
won’t get into that here but I will say
that the Texas public school system I
went through was not a hospitable
environment for anyone who’s more
comfortable with creative abstract
thought than they are with linear
rational thought because of that my
academic career was challenging to say
the least I barely got through in most
of my classes the only the only time I
really did well was when I was taking
tests because when I was taking a test
there’d be a clock ticking there’d be a
performance pressure and then that
pressure created a sense of crisis I
really needed a sense of crisis in order
to stay focused on anything for any
length of time in high school I realized
I had a knack for drawing I still
managed to fail art class though because
I even then I couldn’t ever finish any
drawings each attempt would would go the
same way I’d have an idea about
something and I’d be passionate about
the idea to the point where I couldn’t
think about anything else I had to get
to a piece of paper and pencil as
quickly as I could and I’d start drawing
convinced that what I was about to make
would be so
eight it would revolutionize the concept
of drawing for the rest of time and then
flash to 20 minutes later I’d be
frustrated disheartened and just not
interested you know because what was
happening on the paper was slightly
different than what I had originally
envisioned and so I crumpled it all up
and I start over again and again and
again and nothing ever got finished I
was also pretty unattractive child a lot
of people had a difficult time figuring
out if I was even a boy or a girl and
that didn’t help my romantic life much
but of the few people that did happen to
guess correctly as to my gender none of
them wanted to make out with a pudgy
little boy girl things things started to
get a little bit better in my 20s when
when puberty finally let go of me
and I did convince a couple girls and to
hanging out with me in public and often
those relationships went similar to my
drawings I would have an idea about a
person I’d meet them and I project this
whole life together and and I’d get them
in front of me and a couple weeks later
I would realize that the person that is
actually there is not the one I imagined
them to be and so I’d crumpled it all up
and start over again so I dropped out of
school and ran away to San Francisco I
ended up falling in with this little
crew of punk-rock hippies living in
Golden Gate Park I spent a lot of my
time just drawing on jean jackets like I
get jean jackets from some of the other
kids and I draw band logos or album
covers on the back and in exchange
they’d kick me a couple bucks or buy me
dinner but it didn’t take that long for
me to transition from drawing on jackets
to actually trying to carve these
pictures into their arms and legs
needless to say my first couple dozen
attempts were horrible but I remember
distinctly I got together seven photos
of my
least horrible attempts and I took them
to this grimy just smoky biker tattoo
shop I walked in I laid my seven photos
out on the counter and I explained to
them that I was an incredibly
experienced tattoo artist I had just
moved there from Texas and damn it if
the airline didn’t lose my luggage and
all I had to prove this story was these
seven photos
fortunately the airline luggage story
also helped explain why I hadn’t changed
my clothes in a week but much to my
surprise they hired me and I started the
next day as a professional tattoo artist
I did learn later on that their quality
control was lapsed because they made
most of their money selling meth out of
backdoor but at the time I didn’t care I
all I wanted to do was draw pictures and
make enough money to feed myself about
my first 300 tattoos at the tattoo shop
they all started out the same way my
childhood drawing did I sketch out this
idea on some dirt bags arm and I’d be so
excited about it I dive into tattooing
it with all the optimism in the world
certain that nothing could go wrong and
then 20 minutes later I’d be freaking
out I’d be having an internal panic
attack while trying to keep the customer
from noticing that everything was going
wrong like the lines were not the way I
had initially envisioned them I didn’t
know how I was going to shade it now
I the whole thing just felt overwhelming
and out of control but unlike drawing on
paper
I couldn’t just turn the page and start
over again I had to see this thing
through for better for worse the
imminent possibility of getting my teeth
kicked in by a disgruntled customer
created that sense of crisis that I
needed in order to stay focused
so I finally found a scenario where I
could handcuff myself to an idea and
follow it through to completion every
time and every time I did that
I would wipe away the blood and the ink
from the tattoo and I’d look at it and
realize it’s great it’s not my original
idea but it’s better than an idea
because it’s not just an idea
it’s a real thing and when you look at
it I can feel all those decisions and
course corrections that I made along the
way and it took me going through that
excruciating process literally thousands
of times before I had the confidence to
take a similar leap in other mediums
love included I feel incredibly lucky
that I found tattooing I mean since
starting at that little grimy tattoo
shop I’ve tattooed the whole spectrum of
humanity literally I’ve tattooed biker
gang members who are professional hitmen
I’ve tattooed Jennifer Aniston and
everything in between even outside of
tattooing I’ve gotten to collaborate
with Marc Jacobs Louis Vuitton Nike
Apple and a whole bunch of other kind of
creative forces who would still don’t
know how they got my phone number but
after sitting down with thousands of
these clients tattooing them and
basically listening to who they are in
their life and what they’re going
through and helping them figure out what
sort of symbols or phrases or imagery
make them feel more like themselves
I’ve definitely picked up a couple
patterns and learned a few things
anything worthwhile has to be earned you
know when I first started painting I was
really desperate to figure out my thing
I you know in the same way that Jackson
Pollock made his little squiggles and MC
Escher did his crazy stares going
everywhere I was like I really wanted to
find my thing and our my trick and start
putting things out there in the world
but you know I realized that there’s you
don’t find a thing your thing comes when
you just get your hands dirty and start
making stuff and everything you learn
along the way that’s your thing
and with relationships it’s the same way
I feel like I’ve met so many people who
have this idea of finding love
like they’re really hoping to find love
you don’t find love nobody finds love
love is something you have to build the
best thing you can do if you’re lucky is
find someone that is a willing
collaborator with which to build a love
a flawed something is so much better
than a perfect nothing you know in my
tattoos or in any artwork I make really
my favorite things when I look back on
it or all the little mistakes you know
the unexpected things that happened that
I had to adjust to and in relationships
that’s this that’s the same way it’s the
good stuff you know we of course
initially we have this crush and we have
this idea of who a person is and and
that excitement is what gets us in there
to get our hands dirty but eventually
you get to the point where you realize
that that happily-ever-after you
imagined is not what’s in front of you
what’s in front of you is just a pile of
a human mess but that human mess is so
much more real and it’s so much more fun
and I feel like the success of love is
not necessarily how long it lasts
whether it’s two weeks or 20 years the
success of a love is is based on how
profoundly you can appreciate the person
in front of you as they are and not how
you imagined they might be
strength can be a weakness granted I’ve
spent too much time in tattoo shops
around a bunch of tough guys but I feel
like I run into so many people who put
forth this facade of stoicism and then
get frustrated when they don’t meet
anyone who just miraculously understands
all of the stirrings inside them you
know they they keep their poker face on
but but then they expect people to just
be sensitive to everything that’s
happening but stoicism is not strength
strength is being able to be honest with
yourself about who you are and present
that to someone without being afraid of
how they might receive you so with
making art and love and really anything
once you step back from it all there’s
nothing to lose every now and then we
get people coming into the tattoo shop
wanting to get their boyfriends or
girlfriends names tattooed on them and I
feel like in most tattoo shops they all
have a their own version of a disclaimer
that they give in that scenario it’s are
you sure this is the one have you been
together at least a year you know this
is permanent right I say it if you
love someone today love them with
everything you have we pull no punches
because yes statistically the odds are
stacked against you that you’ll be
together forever but you know a failed
attempt that love is nothing to be
ashamed of I feel like it’s so much less
tragic to have a couple ex-girlfriends
or ex-boyfriends names tattooed on you
than it is to find yourself in the later
years of life having never known what it
feels like to really give yourself to
something that’s it
you
[Music]
so heartbroken that I’m sending you this
and I’m not there in person but my my
wife’s water just broke
and um we it’s the next 24 hours are
going to be interesting but I really
wish I could be there doing a TED talk
is a dream of mine for a long time
everyone asked me to draw pictures
nobody wants to hear what I have to say
but um I’m sorry I can’t be there I’m
gonna send a video that we shot while
rehearsing yesterday and hopefully that
does it for you thanks guys so I was one
of these countless kids in the 80s that
was diagnosed with attention deficit
disorder now I have my own opinions as
to whether or not it should even be
considered a deficit or a disorder I
won’t get into that here but I will say
that the Texas public school system I
went through was not a hospitable
environment for anyone who’s more
comfortable with creative abstract
thought than they are with linear
rational thought because of that my
academic career was challenging to say
the least I barely got through in most
of my classes the only the only time I
really did well was when I was taking
tests because when I was taking a test
there’d be a clock ticking there’d be a
performance pressure and then that
pressure created a sense of crisis I
really needed a sense of crisis in order
to stay focused on anything for any
length of time in high school I realized
I had a knack for drawing I still
managed to fail art class though because
I even then I couldn’t ever finish any
drawings each attempt would would go the
same way I’d have an idea about
something and I’d be passionate about
the idea to the point where I couldn’t
think about anything else I had to get
to a piece of paper and pencil as
quickly as I could and I’d start drawing
convinced that what I was about to make
would be so
eight it would revolutionize the concept
of drawing for the rest of time and then
flash to 20 minutes later I’d be
frustrated disheartened and just not
interested you know because what was
happening on the paper was slightly
different than what I had originally
envisioned and so I crumpled it all up
and I start over again and again and
again and nothing ever got finished I
was also pretty unattractive child a lot
of people had a difficult time figuring
out if I was even a boy or a girl and
that didn’t help my romantic life much
but of the few people that did happen to
guess correctly as to my gender none of
them wanted to make out with a pudgy
little boy girl things things started to
get a little bit better in my 20s when
when puberty finally let go of me
and I did convince a couple girls and to
hanging out with me in public and often
those relationships went similar to my
drawings I would have an idea about a
person I’d meet them and I project this
whole life together and and I’d get them
in front of me and a couple weeks later
I would realize that the person that is
actually there is not the one I imagined
them to be and so I’d crumpled it all up
and start over again so I dropped out of
school and ran away to San Francisco I
ended up falling in with this little
crew of punk-rock hippies living in
Golden Gate Park I spent a lot of my
time just drawing on jean jackets like I
get jean jackets from some of the other
kids and I draw band logos or album
covers on the back and in exchange
they’d kick me a couple bucks or buy me
dinner but it didn’t take that long for
me to transition from drawing on jackets
to actually trying to carve these
pictures into their arms and legs
needless to say my first couple dozen
attempts were horrible but I remember
distinctly I got together seven photos
of my
least horrible attempts and I took them
to this grimy just smoky biker tattoo
shop I walked in I laid my seven photos
out on the counter and I explained to
them that I was an incredibly
experienced tattoo artist I had just
moved there from Texas and damn it if
the airline didn’t lose my luggage and
all I had to prove this story was these
seven photos
fortunately the airline luggage story
also helped explain why I hadn’t changed
my clothes in a week but much to my
surprise they hired me and I started the
next day as a professional tattoo artist
I did learn later on that their quality
control was lapsed because they made
most of their money selling meth out of
backdoor but at the time I didn’t care I
all I wanted to do was draw pictures and
make enough money to feed myself about
my first 300 tattoos at the tattoo shop
they all started out the same way my
childhood drawing did I sketch out this
idea on some dirt bags arm and I’d be so
excited about it I dive into tattooing
it with all the optimism in the world
certain that nothing could go wrong and
then 20 minutes later I’d be freaking
out I’d be having an internal panic
attack while trying to keep the customer
from noticing that everything was going
wrong like the lines were not the way I
had initially envisioned them I didn’t
know how I was going to shade it now
I the whole thing just felt overwhelming
and out of control but unlike drawing on
paper
I couldn’t just turn the page and start
over again I had to see this thing
through for better for worse the
imminent possibility of getting my teeth
kicked in by a disgruntled customer
created that sense of crisis that I
needed in order to stay focused
so I finally found a scenario where I
could handcuff myself to an idea and
follow it through to completion every
time and every time I did that
I would wipe away the blood and the ink
from the tattoo and I’d look at it and
realize it’s great it’s not my original
idea but it’s better than an idea
because it’s not just an idea
it’s a real thing and when you look at
it I can feel all those decisions and
course corrections that I made along the
way and it took me going through that
excruciating process literally thousands
of times before I had the confidence to
take a similar leap in other mediums
love included I feel incredibly lucky
that I found tattooing I mean since
starting at that little grimy tattoo
shop I’ve tattooed the whole spectrum of
humanity literally I’ve tattooed biker
gang members who are professional hitmen
I’ve tattooed Jennifer Aniston and
everything in between even outside of
tattooing I’ve gotten to collaborate
with Marc Jacobs Louis Vuitton Nike
Apple and a whole bunch of other kind of
creative forces who would still don’t
know how they got my phone number but
after sitting down with thousands of
these clients tattooing them and
basically listening to who they are in
their life and what they’re going
through and helping them figure out what
sort of symbols or phrases or imagery
make them feel more like themselves
I’ve definitely picked up a couple
patterns and learned a few things
anything worthwhile has to be earned you
know when I first started painting I was
really desperate to figure out my thing
I you know in the same way that Jackson
Pollock made his little squiggles and MC
Escher did his crazy stares going
everywhere I was like I really wanted to
find my thing and our my trick and start
putting things out there in the world
but you know I realized that there’s you
don’t find a thing your thing comes when
you just get your hands dirty and start
making stuff and everything you learn
along the way that’s your thing
and with relationships it’s the same way
I feel like I’ve met so many people who
have this idea of finding love
like they’re really hoping to find love
you don’t find love nobody finds love
love is something you have to build the
best thing you can do if you’re lucky is
find someone that is a willing
collaborator with which to build a love
a flawed something is so much better
than a perfect nothing you know in my
tattoos or in any artwork I make really
my favorite things when I look back on
it or all the little mistakes you know
the unexpected things that happened that
I had to adjust to and in relationships
that’s this that’s the same way it’s the
good stuff you know we of course
initially we have this crush and we have
this idea of who a person is and and
that excitement is what gets us in there
to get our hands dirty but eventually
you get to the point where you realize
that that happily-ever-after you
imagined is not what’s in front of you
what’s in front of you is just a pile of
a human mess but that human mess is so
much more real and it’s so much more fun
and I feel like the success of love is
not necessarily how long it lasts
whether it’s two weeks or 20 years the
success of a love is is based on how
profoundly you can appreciate the person
in front of you as they are and not how
you imagined they might be
strength can be a weakness granted I’ve
spent too much time in tattoo shops
around a bunch of tough guys but I feel
like I run into so many people who put
forth this facade of stoicism and then
get frustrated when they don’t meet
anyone who just miraculously understands
all of the stirrings inside them you
know they they keep their poker face on
but but then they expect people to just
be sensitive to everything that’s
happening but stoicism is not strength
strength is being able to be honest with
yourself about who you are and present
that to someone without being afraid of
how they might receive you so with
making art and love and really anything
once you step back from it all there’s
nothing to lose every now and then we
get people coming into the tattoo shop
wanting to get their boyfriends or
girlfriends names tattooed on them and I
feel like in most tattoo shops they all
have a their own version of a disclaimer
that they give in that scenario it’s are
you sure this is the one have you been
together at least a year you know this
is permanent right I say it if you
love someone today love them with
everything you have we pull no punches
because yes statistically the odds are
stacked against you that you’ll be
together forever but you know a failed
attempt that love is nothing to be
ashamed of I feel like it’s so much less
tragic to have a couple ex-girlfriends
or ex-boyfriends names tattooed on you
than it is to find yourself in the later
years of life having never known what it
feels like to really give yourself to
something that’s it
you
[Music]
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