Ah, celebrities putting their blood into things: a tale as old as time. Wait, what? Yes, it appears celebrities are absolutely obsessed with removing vital fluids from their bodies and putting them into products.
The most recent offender is Tony Hawk, who donated his own blood to a limited-edition skateboard sold by a canned water brand called Liquid Death, for which he is apparently an ambassador. A video posted by the brand (again, called Liquid Death) shows Hawk sitting down to have his blood drawn, mixed into red paint, and painted onto a skateboard deck. The resulting board, which is already sold out on Liquid Death’s website, affirms that it is indeed “infused with 100% real Tony Hawk.”
The collaboration is apparently inspired by a 1977 Marvel comic starring Kiss, which was printed with ink containing the band’s blood. So this is, I guess, a hallowed tradition in the world of avid fandom? Fine.
But celebrities have long been transfixed by blood, most commonly their own or that of a romantic partner. Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie famously wore vials of each other’s blood during their early-aughts romance, and Machine Gun Kelly revealed just this year that his girlfriend and high-school crush Megan Fox left him a similar drop of her blood for him to wear when she went to Bulgaria.
You may also recall talk of blood in sneakers (?) back in March, when Lil Nas X infused human blood into a Nike rip-off for a Satan-themed album-promo stunt. The rapper refrained from donating his own vital fluids, and the blood was instead provided by the members of the “art collective” that manufactured the shoes, MSCHF. At the time, a spokesperson for MSCHF said, “We love to sacrifice for our art.” There was subsequent backlash to the sneakers both from Nike — who eventually filed a lawsuit against the shoe maker — as well as pastors and politicians who believed the shoes to be blasphemous.
As for Hawk’s entry into the celebrity blood battle, Lil Nas X was less than impressed. On an Instagram post asking if people were “rockin with” the blood skateboard, the singer simply commented, “nah he tweakin.” Those three words — though clearly tongue-in-cheek — have since taken on a life of their own, with people bombarding the comments of any and all posts to call out who, in fact, is tweakin’. Lil Nas X brought us back to the issue at hand on Twitter, writing, “Now that tony hawk has released skateboards with his blood painted on them, and there was no public outrage, are y’all ready to admit y’all were never actually upset over the blood in the shoes? and maybe u were mad for some other reason?”
Regardless, Lil Nas X’s sneakers (of which there were 666) sold out in under a minute. Maybe there is a thirst for celebrity blood after all.
This post has been updated.