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I started this 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 will be my conversation starter and a common thread that links them all. Every week I will be sharing the story of the week here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Stranger #331 || Location: Commercial Dr around 4th

Still walking around the drive after the first part of my school and work day. I can’t quite remember how this happened, but it wasn’t as usual. I think I stopped to look at a display on a store and then when I turned, this gentleman was passing by, skateboard in hand. I think we just acknowledged each other. He had said hi first, and I immeditely (although feeling a bit shy about it) asked if he happened to have a minute, and explained the project. We kept on walking. He immediately picked this one tat you see above:

“You gotta get the California baby! Since that was the first one you noticed, right? This one is about the time when I moved from San Diego to Sacramento. That’s what it is about.”

I then took the shot. I must admit that I can’t quite remember if it was from San Diego to Sacramento or the other way around, but what remained in my mind was about that transition between cities. He then told me he was just traveling around now, skating. He was a very chill guy. I thanked him, wished him good luck and then we went on our separate ways. I still love the simplicity of this tattoo. The first jaw tattoo of the project. So cool!

Thanks stranger!

I started this 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 will be my conversation starter and a common thread that links them all. Every week I will be sharing the story of the week here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Stranger #321 | The Bite-marks | Location: Commercial and Grandview

Found  around my new neighbourhood: the Drive (a place not stranger to the project). I was walking home when I ran into a group of friends hanging out on the sidewalk, and by that I meant: perfect opportunity for a story. When I explained the project she immediately said she had the most random tattoos, and shared how one of them came to be. I immediately started wondering about the story the minute  I saw the bite-marks:

“I was with my girlfriend one day and there was a bite-mark on her hand. I said that that would make a really good tattoo, but she said that she wouldn’t want that. From there I kept on thinking about it until I finally said ‘I want this tattoo!’ and went ahead and got my bite-mark. These are actually my teeth. I bit my arm and then the artist took a picture of it and then drew it out from there. That’s the story, a very random tattoo.”

This one is definitely a first one for the project. I noticed that it also got quite a bit of interest from the readers, so I’m sharing it here at VIAwesome.

I then thanked her for sharing and then went on my way. :)

Thanks stranger!

To check out the daily strangers click here: astrangeraday.com

I started this 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 will be my conversation starter and a common thread that links them all. Every week I will be sharing the story of the week here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Stranger #319 | Location: Commercial and 5th, back in Vancouver

Pheww :] I’m back in Van. School just started. Work just started. I just finished moving to my new little home and this can only mean that the posts will now be as regular as they were before my trip to southern lands. My life has been busy for a million beautiful reasons (see the lines above) but I’m happy to be back and complete the last stretch of the project! 46 strangers to find, each with a story :)  It was late after I was done moving, so I decided to take a stroll around my new neighbourhood. Out on the sidewalk were a couple of guys having a smoke, and since they seemed quite chill I went up to them. One had a tattoo. I believe he told me it was his only one and told me the deal behind it:

“I got this tattoo when I was 16. I used to skip school to go set up rock concerts, and I had a choice between continuing with rock and roll or going to school for Literature and English. I could’ve gotten a scholarship and all those things. I was really torn and didn’t know what to do, but then when I got the tattoo I kind of knew I was going to end up being in rock and roll. I got that —that’s Hunter S. Thompson’s symbol, who’s a political writer and stuff like that, as a reminder just so when I eventually end up down the road in rock and roll, I don’t forget about writing. This was done in Kelowna.”

I smiled. In a way, the story itself made me feel back in the city. They were really nice guys. I thanked them, shared the blog and kept on walking around the ‘hood.

Thanks strangers!

To check out the daily strangers click here: astrangeraday.com

I started this 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 will be my conversation starter and a common thread that links them all. Every week I will be sharing the story of the week here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Stranger #317 // Location: McAllen, Texas

This week the Vancouver-based A Stranger a Day project moved to southern lands. Although I was on vacation, I wanted to see how different or challenging it would be to continue with the project elsewhere. To be honest, I found it ‘easier’ to approach strangers in Van (perhaps because this type of projects are expected, given the interest in arts and culture that exists in Vancouver and the huge student population —let alone the love this city has for ink!). Anyways, I couldn’t wait to publish this story as it is one of the most impressive ones I’ve found through the project. This was collected at a mall in Texas. The family and I were on our way out, but for some reason, and almost instinctively, I went up to him and told him about the project. Maybe he just had a chill vibe, who knows. He instantly told me he had a great story to share, and let me publish it here. I first took the picture of this piece on his neck. Then he told me the deal behind it:

“About two years ago a friend of mine and his girlfriend were at a bar, and you know, they left and both got into a bad car accident. Both of them passed away together. It was very emotional, he was pretty young, only 22. So all of us, friends, had a benefit thing for the family, and his mom let us take some of his ashes and mix them with tattoo ink. And all of us, maybe 30 or 40, got tattoos. So his ashes are actually in this tattoo. A part of him is now with all of us. Even his mom got a tattoo. It was pretty sad, everybody knew him; he was friends with everybody.”

This was crazy! He asked me how was this compared to other stories. I definitely told him this had to be one of the most impressive ones. “Yeah, just the fact that his mom let us use his ashes…”, he said. Wow. I thanked him a bunch for sharing and he wished me good luck with the project. This project always makes my day. Now, back to Vancouver!

Let me know what you think.

Thanks stranger!

To check out the daily strangers click here: astrangeraday.com

I started this 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 will be my conversation starter and a common thread that links them all. Every week I will be sharing the story of the week here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Day #310

The beauty of approaching random people without visible tattoos is that sometimes they have stories you wouldn’t expect. I was on my way to breakfast this morning when I took the chance to collect some stories. She was sitting with her friend and I told them about the daily challenge. One of them had a tattoo and let me hear the deal behind it and share it with you through this project:

“I was a college volleyball player back in the States, and I ended up getting hurt during my junior year. This medically disqualified me to play volleyball. So I had to stop playing.

I got a vine on my foot to represent that, even if that stopped me from playing volleyball, I should keep looking for opportunities for growth and ways to continue to grow myself. So even though this injury blocked my life from going down that path, an ivy vine will find it’s own path and will grow its own roots some place else to grab on to…” —“This story is giving me the chills! I love this story”, said her friend. —“Yeah? Well, it reminds me every day to don’t let something block my path; to let myself go in a different direction and grab on to something new. Yeah, that’s pretty much the story behind it. I hope this works for you!”

This was a very cool story. I thanked her and her friend for sharing, told them about the blog and then kept on going. I love finding stories like this one (full of metaphors). Good stuff.

Thanks strangers!

To check out the daily strangers click here: astrangeraday.com

I started this 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 will be my conversation starter and a common thread that links them all. Every week I will be sharing the story of the week here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Day #303

Location: sidewalk of Main Street, close to Broadway

A random approach, but I’m so happy that I went for it because a really interesting story followed. He was smoking with a friend just by that pub/restaurant Barney’s when I thought I could ask them and see if they were into the project. He immediately told me he had a good story to one of his tattoos and let me shoot it for the blog.

“This tattoo is from a poem that I wrote when I was younger and more poetic. It says ‘One heart to lose / One heart to gain / One heart to break / One heart remains’, and it was a checklist. So ‘One heart to lose’ is a friend dying, my cat died and I considered my cat a close friend. ‘One heart to gain’ stands for my first kid. I don’t have kids yet so that’s why it is not crossed-out. ‘One heart to break’ is about the first time I got my heart broken —that’s why it is crossed-out brutally, it involved a lot of bourbon and a tattoo machine. And finally, ‘One heart remains’. When I die I’m going to get my best friend, who is a tattoo artist, to cross that off on my dead body.”

Nice. That was a smart tattoo, very straight forward. I also find fascinating how great it is as a piece of storytelling itself: ask about a few lines and a concise life-philosophy (sort of) can come out of it. But that’s the one of the beauties of tattoos, right?

Thanks stranger!

To check out the daily strangers click here: astrangeraday.com