A few months ago I asked Sergeant Scary to draw me my next tattoo. We spoke for a bit about what I wanted it to convey. My narrative goes something like this:
I’m Padre. I am one of several people that lead chants for the Northern Guard Supporters. The NGS motif is skeletal, so the story I always think of is the Valley of Dry Bones. The voice of the LORD tells the prophet to speak to the bones, to prophesy, and they will reanimate. He does and they do.
For me, being a devoutly religious person in a supporter section has never been, and never will be, about preaching doctrine. That’s for another venue. For me, it’s about living (and proclaiming) love and grace and mercy in everything I do. Our NGS family is incredible and I try to love each member as much as they love me. Love is life. Love is Resurrection. Love wins.
So it made sense to tie the Ezekiel text into my supporter identity, and my identity in the section as a capo is pretty visible. Sarge’s design looked like this:
For those of you who have been paying attention, Sarge ultimately used the version of my face as the inspiration for the new NGS bass drum head. See the resemblance?
I took Sarge’s design to Jeff McMullen at Signature Tattoo in Ferndale to translate it into a tattoo and today we have the finished product. #Padrehugs are a thing in the supporter community, but there are plenty of people who meet me for the first time and stick with the more formal handshake. Now, every time they do, they will get part of Padre story immediately. Sarge and Jeff combined to produce this incredible piece:
