Dad Has Been Covering His Arm in Tattoos of His Son's Doodles

This Dad Has Been Covering His Arm in Tattoos of His Son’s Doodles

By Sumitra on February 5th, 2015 Category: Art

While most proud parents hang up their kids’ art on their refrigerators, this Canadian dad has found a permanent way of celebrating his son’s work – by turning them into tattoos!

Keith Anderson, from Peterborough, Ontario, has been tattooing his son Kai’s drawings and doodles on his arms, ever since Kai was four years old. Now that Kai is 11, Keith has one tattoo to show for each year – parts of which were inked by Kai himself.

“Each one of these tattoos on my right arm my son has drawn over the years,” the proud father said in an interview with photographer Chance Faulkner. “The first tattoo is from when he was four; he is now 11. We add once a year from his drawing.”

Every year, Keith and Kai get together to decide which piece of Kai’s art will be converted into a tattoo. “I always wait until he can come with me to the shop to be present,” Keith said. “And to have him do some of the tattooing is one of the best things we do together.”

“We started in 2008 with the daisy when Kai was about to start kindergarten,” he recalled. “One of my younger brothers had a tattoo done on his leg of my niece’s art and I loved the idea, so I ran with it to do my whole right sleeve.”

“People who are not into tattooing get it and seem to think it’s cute,” Keith said. “Others think I just let my kid draw on me with markers. I tell them he sort of has drawn on me, but that it won’t come off and they are pleasantly shocked.”

“Tattooed friends, family and strangers love the idea,” he added. “They love it even more when they find out he has tattooed me three times in small little sections.”

“It is a great bonding experience for us — from choosing which piece we will tattoo to discussing the previous ones, his experience of drawing it, and even the connection of him being able to help with tattooing some small sections of the last three tattoos we have done,” Keith said. “He’s a pretty rad kid and it’s a magical experience to share with him.”

“No one I know has ever heard of tattooing original kid art before, and it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “We will keep going until he doesn’t want to do it anymore.” At that rate, it is quite likely that Keith might run out of space on his arms for new tattoos. But he’s already thought of a solution: “I guess I’ll just have to get him to draw me smaller pictures!”