On Aug. 5, Singaporean singer Benjamin Kheng published an Instagram post stating that he would be giving away five pairs of tickets to the National Day Parade (NDP) 2024 to 10 individuals who wrote the best letter to Singapore.

Determined to win a ticket, Michael Collins, a 25-year-old Singaporean, set off to prove his love for Singapore is unparalleled.

However, instead of writing a letter as stipulated by Kheng, Collins decided to get tan lines resembling the national flag on his chest.

The process

In a video documenting the process, Collins could be seen putting star-shaped and crescent moon-shaped stencils on his chest before laying down on a beach for a suntan.

To create some tan lines resembling the national flag, he also placed a towel on the lower half of his torso.

Collins' friend, Yi Hui, proclaimed his love for Singapore in the video as well by showing his newly-dyed red hair, which comes with white star- and moon-shaped patches.

Upon demonstrating their patriotism, the duo proudly told the camera: "Ben is giving away NDP tickets, and we really want one because nobody loves Singapore more than us!"

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Efforts paid off

Collins and Yi Hui's efforts eventually proved successful, as it caught Kheng's attention and garnered over 16,000 views as of Aug. 9 evening.

Kheng also left a comment under their video on Aug. 7, to which Collins replied in all caps: "We did it. We are heading to NDP!"

At around 9pm on Aug. 9, Collins also uploaded an Instagram story showing him and Yi Hui leaving the Padang, where NDP 2024 was held.

Yi Hui also re-posted an Instagram story of a clip from the live broadcast of the parade, showing Collins jumping up and down in the stands with his shirt unbuttoned, presumably to show off his Singapore flag-like tan lines.

The markings however, weren't as clear on the screen.

An NDP to remember

Speaking to Mothership, Collins shared that this was his first time attending the NDP.

His yearning to get the NDP tickets was borne from a desire to "come up with special and fun ways" to celebrate all the holidays this year.

Prior to this stunt, Collins said he had tried getting NDP tickets many times through the balloting process and other giveaways but had always failed.

"We were prepared to give up on our dreams of making this happen after failing at so many of these already. But with like four days to go till NDP, we suddenly saw that Ben Kheng was running a giveaway on social media for these tickets. So we knew it was our last chance."

To stand out among the thousands of responses, Collins and Yi Hui knew they had to "do something crazy".

But how did he come up with the idea of a Singapore flag sunburn in particular?

"One day after playing football I got very badly sunburnt and noticed just how clear the outline of my t-shirt was as that portion of my body was white while everything else was red.

And when it clicked that our flag was made up of the exact same two colours, I suddenly wondered whether it would be possible to use some paper cutouts to create a stencil to cover out the white portions of the flag, so that I could have the red portions of our flag burnt onto my chest, which would then look like the flag on the backdrop of my white skin. And yah once I had that idea I instantly knew I had to try it out."

To achieve that perfect sunburn, Collins lay in the heat for an hour.

He also admitted that "it does sting a little bit now".

However, he believes it was all worth it, "considering how fun this entire national day journey has been for my friend and I".

"This has just been such a crazy ride and such a fun National Day celebration. And yah definitely one that I will remember for life," Collins concluded.

Collins also came up with 'dragon dance' during CNY 2024

This is not the first time that Collins has made headlines for his creativity.

During Chinese New Year 2024, Collins and his friends conducted a "dragon dance" in Chinatown and Gardens By The Bay to celebrate the year of the dragon and spread some festive cheer.

One of them also dressed up as Cai Shen Ye (the god of fortune) and greeted passers-by.

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Top images via Michael Collins/Instagram