A Morning With Keith
“Each one of these tattoos on my right arm my son has drawn over the years. The first tattoo is from when he was 4; he is now 11. We add once a year from his drawings. The drawing on the fridge is a sword that he gave me in my Christmas card; that one will probably be added this summer. The only one that is a different size from the original is the robot, which we did last March when he turned 10. The first one was the daisy- I had it tattooed when he was in kindergarten. Then we went back and did his name and the house from when he was 4. When he was 6 we did the seahorse, and 7 was the maple leaf with the C for Canada. 8 was the stained glass, which is one of my favourites; it was his own abstract idea. The 9 year old one we skipped because he wanted to change the drawing a little bit.
I have had three different artists tattoo these drawings over the years: one in Boulder, Colorado, one in Chatham, and the most recent ones have been in Peterborough with my friend Tedd. Recently, my son was there with me and he did some of the tattooing himself. He loves it. No one I know has ever heard of tattooing original kid art before, and it’s a lot of fun. We will keep going until he doesn’t want to do it anymore. At this pace he is still very excited about it, so we’ll keep going. People ask me what will happen if I run out of space; I guess I’ll just get him to draw smaller pictures.” -Keith
Keith’s son at work:
Comments
Elaine-
Published January 31, 2025 6:58 PM {Permalink}this is the sweetest thing, esp the sweetest ‘dad thing’ i’ve ever seen!!!
Liz
Published February 1, 2025 3:54 AM {Permalink}This is sooooo sweet! My “sis” in Wales in the UK does the same with drawings of her sons. I so love this. I’ve just read the article in my newspaper and seen the pictures and there is a big smile on my face. A wonderful way to start this day! Thank you for sharing your and Kai’s story. <3 xxx Liz from The Netherlands
Lisa
Published February 1, 2025 3:10 PM {Permalink}Hey there, just wanted to say that you’re an amazing dad! I hope you and your son will have a wonderfull life in the comming years
Maria
Published February 3, 2025 12:25 PM {Permalink}This is So lovely, such a true love story. Greetings from Colombia
jo
Published February 3, 2025 5:22 PM {Permalink}I love the kids pictures as tattoos. My kids don’t draw as much as I’d like but I have one of my oldest daughter’s drawings tattooed on my leg so far and hope to have them draw me more!
Alejandro Munera
Published February 4, 2025 3:54 PM {Permalink}I started with both my kid’s names on my arm…
You inspired me. This will now be my next goal. Drawings inspired tattoos from both Miguel and David (4 yrs, 6 months).
Greetings from Colombia. You made this a better day.
Caroline
Published February 4, 2025 11:29 PM {Permalink}What a truly amazing father! And beautiful tattoos and photographs.