The Sideshow‘Scary Guy’ with facial tattoos paid $6,500 a day to teach kids to stop bullying
A former tattoo artist who legally changed his name to The Scary Guy is using his persona—and frightening facial ink—to teach schoolkids to stop bullying.
Scary, a Minnesota man formerly known as Earl Kauffman, has become an in-demand "bully prevention guru." His mission, according to his website, is "The Total Elimination of Hate, Violence and Prejudice Worldwide." The 58-year-old changed his name in 1998, when 85 percent of his body was covered in tattoos, according to the Smoking Gun.
According to CNN, which profiled Scary on Sunday, he charges as much as $6,500 for scholastic speaking engagements. For that cash, they get something like this:
Speaking before a packed auditorium of schoolchildren in Austin, Minnesota, he barfs up apples, groans and rubs his ink-stained belly and intentionally pokes fun at the shortest middle-schooler, the bald PE teacher and the "geek in the wheelchair." He explains he's demonstrating classic bullying behavior to make kids aware of the problem.
The entertaining antics are followed up with fist-pumping and a steely look as he delivers his takeaway: "You travel around on this world, and you put out hate and anger, and you cop an attitude, you'll draw all this into your life wherever you go."
Scary says he's performed in 19 states and frequently gets international requests. "Kids love him, and many school officials sing his praises," CNN said.
Not all of them, though. Kerry Juntunen, a Hermantown, Minn., principal, told the network Scary would never be asked back:
Juntunen recounts how Scary, in an attempt to show that hand-shaking and hugging is harmless, reached out to shake a student's hand and sarcastically said, "Oh, that's the best sex I've had all day!" to a room full of middle-schoolers.
And, in a strange side note to CNN's report, Scary seems to have some tax issues:
Before we sat down for an interview [Scary] claimed his charity, KidsVisionHeart, is a nonprofit. ... The truth is KidsVisionHeart lost tax-exempt status nearly two years ago.
"It probably fell out because I didn't report all of my taxes for the last seven years," admits Scary.
CNN also learned his for-profit business, VisionHeart, was dissolved in the U.S. so his earnings from past gigs have been going to his bank account tax-free.
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