Dad Tattoos His Son’s Art On His Arms Every Year

Some fathers hang their child’s art on the fridge to show they’re proud of them. One dad in Ontario took it a step further by tattooing his son’s drawings on his arms.

Keith Anderson has been getting his son Kai’s art indelibly branded on his skin since his son was 5-years-old. Kai is now 11. Anderson tattoos one of Kai’s drawings every year that he visits from his mother’s house in Colorado. Kai spends every summer with his dad, and every year gets to look forward to another one of his drawings being inked on.

According to Bored Panda, both of Keith’s arms are covered in colorful, playful sketches made across the years as his son ages. Keith does it to bond with his son and be remembered during the times Kai is away from him.

“It brings other memories of the little things they do as a kid, crawling up into bed with you in the morning when they’re really little… The first one was the daisy — I had it tattooed when he was in kindergarten,” Anderson explained. “Then we went back and did his name and the house from when he was 4.”

You can see some of the dad’s tattoos in the photographs below, taken by Chance Faulkner, the photographer who first interviewed Anderson.

Among the drawings is a robot butler, a seahorse, and a tiny house that Kai drew when he was only 4. The son skipped a year when he was 9 because the moon and stars he drew weren’t good enough to satisfy him. His dad’s favorite is a colorful abstract drawing that he made when he was 8.

“Recently, my son was there with me and he did some of the tattooing himself. He loves it. No one I know has ever heard of tattooing original kid art before, and it’s a lot of fun… People ask me what will happen if I run out of space; I guess I’ll just get him to draw smaller pictures.”

The proud dad claims he will continue getting tattoos of his son’s drawings until Kai doesn’t want to do it anymore. According to CTV News, Keith got the idea from his brother first, who had tattooed a drawing made by his daughter onto his leg. Anderson thought this would be an appropriate to show his love for his son.

“It’s another deep connection you can have with your kid… It’s just a different way of expressing art, and it’s our unique way of doing it.”

Would you go so far as to tattoo your son or daughter’s art onto your body?

For more on tattoos, read about these temporary tattoos that monitor your blood sugar levels.

[Images courtesy of Chance Faulker]