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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!

Location: sidewalk of Commercial and Venables-ish

It was during my wanderings around the city (which took up the entire day, well into way past midnight) when I found the tattoo tale of the day. She was with her dog, and while she was about to leave him by a bike rack —to get into a shop, I assume, I took the opportunity to go up to her and explain the project. She had a few bold great pieces, and shared this one for the project:

“Well, there isn’t really a story STORY to my tattoos, they represent more of the different times in my life when I got them. You can take a picture of this one. It is for my son, Oliver. I got it for him. The anchor and the water are there because he anchors me in life. It is funny because he is now four and it’s only him and me, so he often says that this tattoo on this arm is him and the one on my other arm is me. I guess it is because I am pretty lucky and gypsy ladies represent good luck. That’s pretty much what this one is all about, my son.” She showed me her other arm, which had a profile portrait of a lady. I could see the instant correlation in between mum and son, it was really lovely.

I thanked her for sharing and wished her a good day. I then continued on my errands around Vancouver. This story made me smile.

Thank you 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!

Strangers #249

Location: Our Town coffee on Main and Broadway

Yes, this is certainly the find of the week. This story was found before our third win. I came by the shop to have some iced chai, say hi to some friends who basically live here —and were not here today, and get over my cyberduties (now you want iced-chai, right?). While in the middle of all of this, something that seemed quite familiar grabbed my attention: what is pictured above. Given the current hockey climate, I thought the piece might be a false one, but it looked like a very very good false one. I couldn’t let the opportunity pass and I went up to her and her friend and told them about the project. They both had some awesome stories to share and were kind enough to do so. This was hers:

“I started watching hockey when I was four. I was watching the playoffs and there was nothing special, just Trevor Linden was skating off the ice with the puck and I turned over and looked at my dad and said: ‘I wanna do that one day. I wanna play hockey’. My parents never let me when I was little, so I started in high school. There was a girls team at my school and haven’t stopped ever since.” I asked her how long ago the tattoo was made. “January 17, 2008,” she said.

Her friend  shared his tattoo story as well, and it can be found here. I just thought this was the most AWESOME coincidental find ever! A sign perhaps? :)

Enjoy the game y’all, take care and thank you 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 one of my favourite findings here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Location: Melriches Coffee Shop on Davie

When I entered this place, I never imagined what kind of story I’d encounter. He was sitting with a friend, so I apologized for the interruption and explained the project. He looked at me and said very frankly “I have lots of stories. I’ll tell you about this one…” He rolled his sleeve and I took the picture. Then he continued…

“I got in trouble when I was younger, in the States, and instead of giving me a record, they made me join the Marines. And I said ‘sure, it’ll be better than going to jail. It will be a walk in the park. I’ll join the Marines, stay in the USA -because I was working there, and life will be dandy.’ But that didn’t happen.

I joined the Marines. They put me in the Peace Corps and sent me to Thailand, Bangkok.  So, they had a naval base there, a marine base, airport space and on top of that I became an MP —a military police, working within the perimeter of the outback. That’s where the soldiers go to drink, and get rowdy and all of that. So I went in there and an altercation broke out at the bar: these three guys were going to have their way with a woman. I told them ‘hey, you can’t do that’, and the guy replied: ‘whose side you on?’ and I told him ‘well, I’m doing my job, and you are branching a weapon, so you better drop it or I’ll get you arrested’, ‘screw you!’ he said. So I said ‘no, screw YOU’ and I grabbed him and put a gun and said ‘you better let her go or I’ll shoot you dead, make up your mind because you are an enemy now’ and he said ‘Oh, you can’t shoot me. I’m on your side’, and then his buddy shot me. It hit here on my arm, so this is a cover-up. It is covering up the scar from that.

Then I shot him back. I dropped the guy and said ‘you’re next, be gone or be dead’. I didn’t kill the guy but he’s got a wound that he’ll remember forever. Every time he looks in the mirror, he’ll remember I gave it to him for what he did. So that’s why I got that. He went into a court. I was let off of all charges. He was arrested and had his trial in New York, for war crime. You just can’t rape a girl, and I couldn’t stand there and watch it. They all got charged for what they did.”

There are no words for this story. I was impressed as I was listening. I couldn’t even imagine the life this guy has had —and all of the other stories he sure carries with him. I thanked him for sharing and then we introduced ourselves. I went back to my table amazed from what I just had heard. Incredible.

Thank you 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 one of my favourite findings here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Location: Opus on Granville Island

It was during art-intended errands around Granville Island when I had the chance to find some stories. They were super cool people, and the way this happened was random and cool too. I was hanging around the framing section of the store when I spotted a girl with interesting pieces showing on her skin. I figure I’d give it a shot and tell her about the project. She immediately was into it and let me take a picture of this one on her knuckles. Pacman!

[above] “Well, the story is mainly that I always wanted to get something on my knuckles, but I never knew what to get. I didn’t want to get a word because I thought it was too kind-of-pretentious to get a word. So I started off with these two (the heart and the apple) without realizing that those were sort of pacman-looking symbols. Then I added the ghost, which is my favourite Pacman ghost, and then finally the Pacman, which is sometimes mistaken for a moon or something else. But that’s ok! That’s the cool thing about symbology, some people get it right away and are like PACMAN! and some people see it as just a bunch of symbols.”

I am biased, but when I saw the tattoo for the first time, it immediately reminded me of awesome childhood times. Made me smile. :)

Half way through the story another stranger joined us. I would only know later that he lived with her. He seemed really into the tattoo conversation and mentioned that he had just given himself a tattoo about a week ago. I asked if he’d like to share it for the project as well, as I thought that story couldn’t go untold on the blog. He immediately rolled up his pants and let me take the shot:

“I gave myself this tattoo. I’m trying to be an apprentice at the tattoo shop I work in, and the guy I work with brought it up. He asked me if I wanted to tattoo myself. I was really into it, so he set everything up and I did it.” —I asked him what it felt like, as it was very different from all the classic self-given stick and pokes… —“I was so focused on it that I barely felt it. It was cool, because you are doing it yourself, so you know what to expect at all times… It was also the first tattoo I ever did on someone.”

Not bad to be the first time holding the machine. Like I said, very chill people. I had more tattoo conversations with strangers along the day, it was a cool afternoon. A few minutes later and all shopping done, we were back on the ferry on our way to the studio. :)

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 one of my favourite findings here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Stranger #224

Location: The Foundation on Main

Nachos anyone? Sangria? Yes. I thought so. That’s what my friends and I were doing yesterday evening. As always, I decided to take the chance to talk to some people there. The first pair of people I talked to didn’t have any ink, but were kind enough to check the blog on the spot (and yes, they had food in front of them). The second group of people had an individual with some ink, who was willing to share her story. After a few moments of thought, she picked this one for the project:

“This is probably the one with the most meaning behind it. It is a church in my dad’s town, and my grandpa used to ring the bells there every single sunday from when he was about twelve until the day he passed away -he was eighty nine or ninety by then. This was in Croatia. The tattoo was then done here in Vancouver.”

Wow! Super cool story. We then introduced ourselves and talked a bit more about where we were from. They were a really chill group of friends. :)  I thanked them and then went back to my table to meet my friends. Good times.

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 one of my favourite findings here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Stranger #218

Location: Turk’s on the Drive!

So, this is how it happened: my friend and I came to the coffee shop to post today’s earlier stories. It was also an opportunity to talk to some more people around the shop and make up for a day that I missed earlier in the week (oops). Sitting by us was a guy who seemed to be really nice, and on his way out I took the opportunity to approach him and tell him about the project. He was in a bit of a rush, but he still gave me a few minutes of his time to share a tattoo:

“I have a few tattoos, but lately I’ve been trying to move away from the very generalized idea that every tattoo has to mean something or be a metaphor for something else. Why does a tattoo have to mean something external to it every time? Why can’t it just be about the tattoo itself, right? So I have a few tattoos that a friend of mine gave to me. He is not a professional tattoo artist or anything, but he is a very very good drawer and artist. One Christmas his mom, who is a wonderful person, was kind enough to give him a set of tattoo guns as a gift, so he started tattooing his friends and what not. He’d also dated a tattoo artist before, so it wasn’t his first contact with making tattoos, but that’s another story.

I guess I can show you this one on my leg. -I’ll see if I can show you, oh here… a friend of mine did this scribbly drawing and then I took it to this friend and he tattooed it on me. Like I said, lately I’ve been getting tattoos more for the experience of it. Sometimes my friend would tattoo something on me with an aesthetic I wouldn’t necessary subscribe to, but it is not about that, it is about a friend giving me a tattoo. And it is also a very funny thing, because he is a very macho guy, but when he gives me a tattoo he’d touch my body and be very caring and meticulous with his tattooing, so there is this weird experience/bond. So that’s why I get my tattoos, it is more about the experience of getting them than anything else, and I quite like that.”

He rolled his jeans’ leg up and showed me this tattoo for me to take a picture. I loved his story and philosophy behind it, tattoo for tattoo’s sake sort of thing, but not really. More like tattoos for experience’s sake. Either way, cool guy and cool story. I thanked him for sharing and then he went on his way.

Thank you stranger!

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