ARLINGTON — The grimace on Robert Rubio's face doesn't tell the full story. Yes, he is suffering mild pain, but not too much to endure having 900 surgical needles inserted into his body.

"It might hurt a little bit, but it's all in the mind — pain is in the mind, and I got this covered," he said.

Rubio said he just wanted to make something of himself. So on his 37th birthday, he decided to turn himself into a Guinness World Record.

"I always wanted to be something different and something better than anybody else and wanted to show my momma, 'Look! I am something!" he said.

But this not exactly what his mother was really wishing for.

"She thinks I'm stupid," Rubio said, "but she still loves me, she says."

Aaron Chimbel / WFAA.com

Rubio decided to challenge the record for most body piercings with surgical needles. The record of 745 was set by Benjamin Drucker, who had the 18-gauge needles inserted into his body by Nate Adams in Taos, New Mexico on July 12, 2003.

Rubio asked Tyson Turk of Dream Tattoo in Arlington to help him break the record.

"He asked me to do 900 piercings, and I went, 'Wow, 900 piercings! Let's do it, man," Turk said.

Paramedics were on standby just in case Rubio struggled, but his heart rate remained steady around 82. He easily passed the record — and kept right on going.

Each poke is painful, but Rubio says manageable.

"Why don't you stick one in you and see how it feels like?" he asked. "You'd make a little grimace too!"

Then, Rubio and Turk make the record even tougher to break with 900 needles inserted in almost exactly four hours.

"I'm 100 percent surprised," said paramedic Samantha Kaufman. "I didn't think he was going to make it though; I didn't think his body could take that much pain."

Before he celebrated the record (and his birthday), a final count was taken to ensure that the 900-needle mark was achieved.

Then each of the needles was carefully removed.

"I told you: Dreams do come true," Rubio said. "Next is Disneyland!"

E-mail achimbel@wfaa.com