A terminally ill dad wants to guarantee people will remember him when he’s gone.
Don Caskey, of Ohio, says he has convinced more than 600 strangers to get $40,000 worth of matching tattoos with him – and he’s not done.
“I wanted to make more connections with people who I didn’t know so I started asking random strangers to get tattoos with me,” Caskey told Kennedy News.
“Part of the reason I started doing this is so these people remember me as well, so we have a human connection that not many people have.”
The 56-year-old was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in December 2018 after spotting blood in his urine.
He underwent an operation to remove his right kidney and immunotherapy in hopes to strengthen his immune system, but cancer spread to his liver.
Despite his doctor’s best efforts, Caskey has been warned that he only has months to live.
“I was hoping for the best but I got the worst. It’s alright, I’m still alive and enjoying what I’ve got,” he said. “It could be 40 months but I won’t live ten more years.”
One day after his terminal diagnosis, Caskey was sitting on her son’s back porch when he began reminiscing about the memories associated with his six tattoos and had a wild idea.
“I realized I remembered when I got all of my tattoos and what they meant,” he recounted. “I figured that those memories of the tattoos will go with me when I passed away.”
In an effort to make as many last memories as possible before passing on, Caskey decided to begin a campaign to convince as many strangers as possible to get matching tattoos with him.
“Getting a mark on each other’s bodies, a forever mark that they’ll never forget and they’ll keep with them throughout life and afterward, they’ll take it with them when they go so we’re connected together forever by ink,” he explained.
Caskey began approaching random people in malls and on the street. At first, many people thought he was crazy, but once he begins to share his story of being diagnosed with terminal cancer and wanting to live like there’s no tomorrow many people have connected with Caskey – 609 to be exact.
The friendly father has gotten matching ink with 609 strangers from the US, Scotland, Australia, Costa Rica, New Zealand and England.
As his story has spread, people from all over the world have reached out to Caskey wanting to help with his mission. He also said that he’s received all his tattoos, worth an estimated $40,000, for free as word has spread around the tattoo community.
When tattooing with people overseas, Caskey will FaceTime with the person to arrange a time for them to go to their prospective tattoo parlors and try to find something in common to get inked.
“I believe everyone has something in common wherever you’re from in the world, we’re all just people,” he said.
He’s gotten the Statue of Liberty with a woman from London named Liberty, a Scottish thistle with a girl who lives in Scotland, a drug overdose ribbon for a man who lost two kids to heroin and a “fun zone” tattoo near his butthole with a girl.
“She wanted a camel on her big toe but I didn’t want that,” Caskey explained.
Most of his markings are smaller than the palm of his hand and still have not covered his body. He hopes to fill his skin with 1,500 more designs.
“I don’t regret any of them, I have 609 people I have a connection with now,” Caskey said.
