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In My Dreams, You’re Flying Aboard A Paper Airplane
The final moments before my first tattoo
We sit in the tattoo parlor’s narrow hallway, watching the artist prepare our image from the pictures I’ve asked him to work off of. I examine the dozens of sketches lining his walls. There’s an intriguing darkness to them. Most of the pictures are of dragons and demons.
My brother is next to me, calmer than I am. This is the first tattoo for both of us. After a series of discussions, we arrived at the perfect design- a paper airplane containing my dad’s initials.
During the research phase, I discovered that there are a surprising number of options when it comes to paper airplane design. I chose the one named after The Harrier, an attack aircraft. Usually, I’m not one for tributes to war, but my father was a warrior who fought metastatic cholangiocarcinoma bravely until the very end. This fits.
The artist composes a picture of the tattoo from the printouts I brought him. He draws carefully with his glasses on, in deep concentration.
As we wait, my brother points to a sketch on the top right wall, “That octopus looks cool,” he says.
“Oh yeah,” I respond, “It reminds me of that creature Will Smith found and then dragged across the snow dessert in Independence Day.”
