Michael Amoia, a music producer and entrepreneur from New York, recently set a new world record for the most insects tattooed on his body, a whopping 864.

But just because he has a giant centipede covering most of his front torso, and a menacing scorpion inked on the right side of his face does not mean that Michael Amoia likes insects. In fact, the opposite is true, as the Queens native says he hates bugs and is afraid of them. They represented one of the fears he had as a child, and having them permanently inked on his body was his way of dealing with and embracing that fear. It all started with one tattoo when he was 21-years-old, and it just snowballed from there. Today he has twice as many insect tattoos as the previous holder of the Guinness record for most insects tattooed on a human body.

Photo: Guinness World Records

“My tattoos take me back to my childhood. I had multiple fears instilled in me, and insects and bugs were part of my fears,” the 47-year-old told the New York Post. “The first one I got was a red queen ant. She got pregnant, and that’s where it all spawned.”

“All my insects tattooed on my body have multiple meanings,” the new world record holder added. “Some have very specific meanings related to what powers those insects have and where they are placed on my body. The dragonfly has the power of deep and inner thought, and I put that on my temple.”

Among the hundreds of creepy crawlies decorating Micheal Amoia’s body, the two giant centipedes stretching across his chest and back are probably the most eye-catching, but the giant flies on his feet and the dragonfly on his face are pretty hard to ignore as well.

Michael technically has 889 bug tattoos on his body, but Guinness Records only recognized 864 of them, as some of the bugs aren’t actually insects, including the afore-mentioned centipedes, scorpion and spiders. Still, the officially recognized tattoos amount to double the number of tattoos of the previous record-holder (402).

“People always come up to me and talk to me about my work,” Amoia told Guinness Records. “I guess I have to expect it, but when they learn about my story they start to formulate a completely different opinion of me. Hopefully, I can open up some people’s minds so they can realize, you know, there’s a few ways to look at things and don’t judge a book by its cover, I guess.”

Mike’s plan is to turn his insect tattoos into an NFT and validate it with Guinness, then sell it and donate the proceeds to “underprivileged, underrepresented kids”.