About a year ago I started a project called A Stranger A Day to overcome my shyness and talk to people. The challenge: talk to a stranger a day for a year of my life and try to convince them to let me take a picture and share a story. Since most tattoos have a story behind them, this was my conversation starter and a common thread that linked them all. Every week I have been sharing the story of the week here on Vancouver Is Awesome.

With the year now over and 365+ strangers and their stories documented, I’ll continue to talk to a stranger every once in a while, and post a story weekly here on VIA.

Stranger #371 [weeklyish posts] || Location: Prado on the Drive

He was behind the counter. We have been aware of each other’s existence for months, but never knew each other’s names or went past the small coffee request and how-are- yous. I don’t remember, but while I was telling him about this project, he told me I had mentioned it before, or that he had known something about it from somewhere.

Nods on the street when you encounter the barista of your hide-out outside his/her usual surroundings are a frequent happening in my life, and now, in the aftermath of the project I decided to use this as an opportunity to bridge the gap from ‘I kind of know you’ to ‘hi :)’ and have a glimpse of the individual behind the profession.

So he told me about this tattoo that’s somewhat recent:

“The the letters stand for ‘Perfect Diet of Pizza’, and I have been wanting something like that for quite a while. I was playing in Squamish with my band maybe about two months ago, and after we were done, we went to a party and someone brought a tattoo gun. I had this comic book and I traded it for a tattoo. I decided on this because it was already on my mind and I got it done.”

That was that. A tattoo for a comic book, after playing with your band, about something you’ve had wandering your mind for a while. Oh life. I thanked him for sharing, we introduced ourselves and then I went on my way.

Thanks stranger!

For all the 365+ stories, click here: astrangeraday.com