Marcus Boykin doesn't look like anyone else on this planet.
That's by design: Boykin, who is known professionally as "The Creature," is a tattoo artist and body piercer who has turned his body into a canvas featuring his own unique designs and piercings.
Boykin, who performs at the Venice Beach Freakshow, adds a new mark each day and the 29-year-old does almost all of them himself.
When Boykin is pinned down on why he subjects himself to this, he explains it's a calling of sorts.
"Without feeling the needle feels like I'm losing my purpose in life," he said in the promo video for the the AMC reality series "Freakshow."
Boykin said that his outer body is like a serial novel of sorts.
"My body will never be done," he said on an episode airing Thursday night. "This is my story. I'm still living so my story cannot be done."
But there are some unhappy chapters to this story.
"Because of this dedication, the average person draws themselves away from me or grabs their kids in fear of you," he told his boss, Todd Ray, in the episode. "Knowing that I have a daughter who is 5 years old -- her name is Mia -- it's a hard thing to deal with. A hard road."
Boykin he has only seen his daughter a few times in her life and when they met, "she was scared."
Boykin admits his decision to cover his body with tats and piercings has been a sticking point with his ex-wife and Mia's mother.
"She's known me from the beginning, but since I've made the transformation, it's still something that was hard for her to deal with," he said.
Boykin has a two-year-old son by another woman and, luckily, the child is not freaked out by his outlandish appearance.
"He's not scared of me," Boykin said in the promo video. "He loves me."