Destiny fans raise $50,000 in 30 minutes, forcing charity stream hosts to tattoo their butts

Update: GuardianCon recently passed $2.1 million raised for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. You can watch the charity stream for yourself here. 

GuardianCon is an annual two-day gaming convention held in Tampa, Florida, but for many people the event is all about the week-long charity livestream marathon leading up to the convention itself. GuardianCon 2018 kicked off its 'Charity Blitz' earlier this week, with all proceeds going toward St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and it's seen a bunch of fun streams since, with many streamers offering amusing donation milestones like shaving their eyebrows or wearing flamboyant cosplay. At the time of writing, the event has raised over $1.7 million of its $2.4 million goal (the daily operating cost of St. Jude). 

One of the high points of this year's marathon was the Destiny Community Podcast's segment, which raised over $100,000. It also doomed two of the hosts, podcast producer Pope Bear and Destiny 2 streamer turned Bungie consultant Patrick "Holtzmann" Casey, to getting matching heart tattoos on their butts. Half of that chunk of change was donated in the final 30 minutes of the stream. 

Pope Bear and Holtzmann announced beforehand that they would tattoo their butts if they hit $100,000, but that goal seemed far away as their stream entered its second half. That is, until a viewer by the name of CCkun91 donated a staggering $25,000. No, CCkun91 seemed to say, those butts are getting tattooed.

CCkun91 is a Destiny 2 streamer himself, and apart from his PvP expertise, he's known for his generosity. During GuardianCon 2016, for example, he donated $6,000 to Destiny 2 YouTuber Datto during his segment. His donation to the Destiny Community Podcast's stream this year was not only considerably larger—I don't know what this guy does for a living, but good on him—but also the catalyst for a landslide of donations which collectively raised around $50,000 in half an hour. Here's the moment where the stream hit its $100,000 goal (you can watch the full stream here):  

I reached out to Pope Bear to hear his thoughts on the stream's runaway finish. "The 25k donation was epic and made the possibility of reaching 100k very real," he said. "I knew that the Destiny community was going to step up in a huge way but that last 20 mins was an absolute blur.

"I do not have any other tattoos and to be honest I will wear it with pride as this community has given me so much," he added. "Our illustrator Ash, who we have been working with for over three years, will be designing the tatoo for us." 

I asked him how his wife felt about the whole thing. "She could not be happier for her husband to share a matching butt tattoo with another man," Pope Bear said. 

Holtzmann, meanwhile, had this to say on Twitter: 

CCkun91's reply was perfect:  

It was a great effort for a good cause, and Bungie took notice. Destiny 2 community manager dmg04 provided a donation incentive of his own, offering previews of upcoming patch notes on another Destiny 2 stream hosted by Gigz. Here's a roundup of everything he shared: