He's known as the Enigma, and he's got a tattoo of a jigsaw puzzle covering his body from horn to toe.
He is a 36-year-old musician and a sideshow act, and he will be at the Launchpad on Sunday. He's been swallowing swords since he was 15, and he had horns implanted into his head in 1995.
He said he met a man who was into pearling, a form of art where objects are inserted underneath the skin.
"I asked him if he could give me horns," he said.
He's done sideshows for Lollapalooza, makes music and incorporates his act into the concerts.
"It's a sideshow and rock 'n' roll for the A.D.D.," he said.
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He said he won't give his real name, because unlike Peter Parker from Spider-Man, he can't take his mask off.
He tours with Katzen the Tiger Lady, who is also tattooed. She's his ex-wife, and they've managed to make their professional relationship work for the sake of their shows.
"We sacrificed our lives for our art," he said. "Our lives are nothing compared to the art we try to present."
He's been accumulating the blue jigsaw tattoos along his body for years. Tiger Lady drew the outline, and everywhere he goes, people volunteer their free time and efforts to fill him in.
"Everyone wanted a piece of the action," he said. "I've had amateurs - people who've never even tattooed in their lives - scrub a little blue into my skin."
He said he was raised in Seattle and was a product of his mother's rebellion. She wanted to be a music teacher, but her father wouldn't let her. As a result, he was given every music lesson she wished she had as a kid.
"I grew up in the backseat of a car going from different private lessons," he said. "I lived off comic books and casseroles."
Eventually he joined in a magic club, where he learned to swallow swords, eat fire, lie on a bed of nails and perform other sideshow antics.
He and Tiger Lady have an 11-year-old daughter who has never seen their act. He said he doesn't know if he would ever take her on the road with him.
"It's up to her," he said. "I think she wants to be a paleontologist."
He said compared to the tattoos, swallowing swords is nothing.
He said they're not sharp. He is sticking them down his throat, after all.
At their shows, Tiger Lady takes an axe head hanging from her guitar and starts a fire with a grinder. Then she sticks her head in the flames and lights a cigarette.
"In a magic show, you wonder how it's done," he said. "But in a sideshow, you wonder why it's done."
He said the reason Tiger Lady sticks her face in the flames is to show not only that smoking is dangerous, but it could kill you.
"It's beautiful to see," he said. "It's science."
He said he doesn't think he will ever regret his tattoos. He compared it to getting a sex change.
"You really have to want this," he said.
He'd have to for the pain he's endured for his body modifications.
"There is more pain standing here than most people have ever felt in a lifetime," he said.
When he gets the money together, he wants to replace his Teflon horns with coral from the sea.
"Your body registers it as dead calcium, coats it and replaces it with living calcium," he said.
Then, years from now, he said, archeologists will find his remains and say they found Satan's skull in the desert.
Coming attraction
The Enigma and Katzen
Launchpad
618 Central Ave.
Sunday at 8pm
$7
