“Because I get tattoos so impulsively, I know exactly what I was going through when I got each one.”
“I’m very impulsive with my tattoos,” says Dom Gabriel over a video call. “When I think of one, I get it done within 24 hours.” The singer-songwriter for the band Døntcall originally hails from Scarborough, Ont., but has been in L.A. since the February release of Perfect Match, the Netflix supercast dating show he appeared on. (Before that, he was on Netflix’s The Mole.)
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Today, he has over a million followers on TikTok, where he shows off his intricate nail-art designs, bonds with followers over his love of pop-punk music and Taylor Swift (“Taylor Swift is emo; she is pop-punk — I don’t care what anybody says!”) and, most of all, pokes fun at his emotional nature. He’s quick to point out that he’s a Cancer, which is often thought of as the zodiac’s most sensitive sign. In fact, Gabriel has the words “CRY BABY” tattooed behind his ear; he got it done right after Perfect Match wrapped filming to pay homage to how he was portrayed on the show. “As soon as I landed back home, I was like, ‘I have to get this.’”
A lifelong emo skater kid, Gabriel says he sees his tattoos as a visual diary, not only capturing moments of his life but also tracking his mental and emotional state at the time of each new permanent addition. “When I started getting tattoos, I would get my elbow, stomach or hands done,” says Gabriel. “My tattoo artist [Matt Vanasse of Toronto’s Corner Pocket Tattoo] says I used to pick the most painful areas to get tattooed; I think that this was a subconscious choice and reflective of the fact that I wasn’t in the best place mentally.”
And when it comes to the tattoos themselves, the progression is as clear as day….
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