Bryan Adams fan gets back autographed on stage and turns it into a tattoo

Lori Capozzi has been a Bryan Adams fan for almost 40 years, and has to use both hands to count the number of times she has seen him in concert.

When the iconic rocker played at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton — about 62 kilometres south of Kelowna in B.C.'s Interior — this past Monday night, Capozzi was in the crowd once again, in the front row for the very first time. From that prime vantage point, she was holding up a sign that said, "Bryan, I want your autograph to be my next tattoo."

Even if it was a longshot, Capozzi was hoping Adams would notice her sign and scrawl his signature on her skin.

About three quarters of the way through the show, it actually happened.

The Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee invited Capozzi onto the stage and wrote his name in thick black felt on the back of her right shoulder. The next day, Capozzi visited local tattoo artist Corey Hounslow and had the signature permanently preserved.

"I think it looks exactly like his signature," Capozzi told Sarah Penton, host of CBC's Radio West.

"If you look at it, [Hounslow] nailed it. He did a really good job. I'm quite happy."

WATCH | Fan recounts how she got a tattoo of Bryan Adams' autograph:

Bryan Adams signed this fan's back - and she turned it into a tattoo

1 year ago

Duration 1:27

Lori Capozzi was overjoyed when singer Bryan Adams signed her back on-stage at a show in Penticton, B.C. this week — so much so that she has turned the autograph into a tattoo.

'I just about froze'

When Capozzi was making her sign before the concert, she says her husband told her Adams wasn't going to stop the show just to fulfil her request. Capozzi was undaunted, and had reason for optimism as Adams started rolling through his vast collection of hits.

"I could tell throughout the concert that he was looking at the sign," she said. "He looked at it a number of times because, like I said, I was in the front row."

In the second half of the concert, there was a pause in the action and Adams started interacting with the crowd. Capozzi says he was reading everybody's signs, starting from the back of the arena and moving to the front.

That's when he got to hers.

"He started reading it, and I was like, 'Oh my God, this is not gonna happen,'" Capozzi said. "I just about froze. I didn't know how to react. He basically said, 'What do you think, Penticton?' And everybody started cheering, and he said, 'I think I can make this happen.' And then he motioned for me to come up."

Capozzi says she was worried about what she was going to say when she got on stage. But, Adams started the conversation by asking if Capozzi was a tattoo artist.

"I said, 'No, I just love tattoos.' And then I said, 'And I love you too, Bryan.' And he said thank you. And then I turned around and he signed my back."   

Capozzi says she then motioned for a hug from Adams and got one.

She says she thanked him and walked back off the stage.

Autograph was already fading

Capozzi says she started making phone calls when she got home, looking for a tattoo artist who could put some indelible ink down on top of the signature. The next morning, she left a message for Hounslow and says he wasted little time in getting back to her.

Hounslow told CBC he has done "many, many signature tattoos over the years," including one by Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler.

In this case, Hounslow says the Adams autograph had already faded "quite a bit, so I had to work from the photograph that she had the night before and what was left on the skin to kind of put it all back together."

Hounslow says the job took about an hour.

Capozzi says her husband has sent Adams a picture of the tattoo through social media.

In the future, she might get a chance to show him in person.

"He's been my all-time favourite artist and I'll continue to go see him over and over again," she said.