I’m the proud owner of some new art.
It’s on my arm, I’ve got a new tattoo. This one is my tenth. This one is an important link to my history.
I’ve had it for a few days so we are in the healing process. It’s scabby and a little puffy. Sometimes,during the healing process, you can’t really see the picture clearly. In the first few hours, it’s really hard to distinguish because it’s clouded by blood and ink.
Tattoos are art that grows on you. It’s a scar that becomes a story.
Life is like that too, healing can be a process. It takes a little time for our scars to become stories.
Life is art that grows on you.
Let me tell you the story of my newest art…
it’s an incredibly sweet old school panther.
It was done by my friend, Taylor Cornwell, who is an AWEmazing artist and really cool guy. He is ALSO from me and my Dad’s hometown…Tulsa! Here is why that is significant…
My latest tat is a tribute piece to my Dad.
My Dad had a tattoo on his forearm, he got it when he was in the army. He was stationed in Germany, a long way from home and he got a tattoo.
I’m pretty sure there was alcohol involved, because it wasn’t a very good tattoo.
It was always a little bit of a mystery about what the tattoo actually was…I always thought it looked like a misshapen sweet potato. Dad told us it was a panther. “Hmmm….sure, Dad, Maybe a panther with a goiter”. But he insisted it was a panther. His panther was etched on his arm, but it’s also forever etched in my memory. As a little kid I would study it and touch it. As I grew older it became another chapter in the manliness and mystery of Delano Lang.
My Dad didn’t talk a lot about his past, he was very private. But, this was a story that he couldn’t hide. He wore it on his sleeve…literally.
My Dad moved to heaven 14 years ago, I miss him.
There is not a day that goes by that i don’t think about him.
I wonder what he would do in situations.
I wonder what he would think of the man and father that I’ve become.
I try to carry him with me.
I decided it was time to carry a piece of him with me in a symbolic sense. But, as every generation must learn to do, I carry him in my own way. So I got a panther tattoo, it’s not an exact replica, because it’s always better to remember the past than to try to replicate it. It’s a second generation cat tat.
It’s my Dad’s story in my style.
and…
it’s healing.
carbonated joy 