Do you have a meaningless tattoo? (Sarcasm)

Photo courtesy of J&J Lawrence Photography

Today someone linked me to a news article that says tattoos are classless and worthless" written by Lisa Khoury but I beg to differ. I myself have a tattoo of the "Support Our Troops Decal" that many people put on their bumpers to show support for our soldiers and I am far from "Classless"  I decided to get the tattoo four years ago as a tribute to the fallen soldiers families I have met and for my friends I met that were serving our countries overseas.

I have also in the last five years received numerous photos from members of my page who have gotten tribute tattoos to fallen comrades or loved ones and I featured some of them in a YouTube video for "The Gratitude Project"  (YouTube video below)

My Support our Troops tattoo

"Can you get meaning out of a tattoo? Arguably. If you want to insert ink into your skin as a symbol for something greater than yourself, then maybe you are proving a point to yourself or the rest of the world." - Lisa Khoury


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE


Here is my response to Lisa Khoury : 


Hi Lisa, I want to say thank you for writing such a ignorant article today, you see I'm probably the only person that will say that to you and if you are wondering why?  As I posted your story on my "Thank A Soldier" facebook page, people began to post their photos of their meaningful tattoos. Families of fallen soldiers emailed me there tributes and people came together in something very special and positive.   All Day I struggled as to what I would write to you that anger turned in to something positive.
Dave Murphy - Thank A Soldier


If you have a "Meaningful" tribute tattoo that you would like to post head on over to "Thank A Soldier" and post your photo and story as to why you had it done.


If however you would like to email your thoughts to Lisa Khoury CLICK HERE

The above is a series of tributes done for Pte. Chad Horn and features Chad's tattoo he had done himself.  Before he was KIA serving our country in Afghanistan Chad got the words "For Those I Love I Will Sacrifice" tattood on his back.  Chad was killed in September 2008 and the tattoo in the top right is his mother Anita's tribute.  To the left is his sister Tiffany's tribute and also Jim's tribute to his stepson.  I met members of the Horn family shortly after his death and had the honour of meeting many of them at his funeral here in Calgary.  Anita is one of the classiest women I know and every time she talks about her son you can see the love in her eyes.  This is their families way of remembering their son & brother and I don't think I need to say anymore about how meaningful a tribute it is.

This tattoo is Damian Dyke's tribute to fallen soldiers the quote across his soldiers is from a DMX song and reads :

""If it takes for me to suffer for my brother to see the light, Give me pain till I die, but please Lord treat him right"

Photo via Silvia Pecota Artiwork

Damien served as a personnel support worker for the Canadian Forces for four years in Afghanistan and this was his way of showing respect to our fallen heroes.The tattoo was inspired by a Slyvia Picota painting called "Croix"

Collection of photos of my group members tattoos


Ivan Henderson is a tattoo artist near CFP Petawawa, in Ontario and this is his response to Lisa Khoury  CLICK HERE TO READ