John Andrews

Connect What inspired your most recent tattoo?

My Grandpa was a stress engineer on the SR-71 Blackbird and I've always been proud/thought the plane looked cool. I got the schematic of it on my upper left thigh to memorialize him (he passed away in 1997) and I wanted a piece that I could get done in front of my students so they could see the process. Didn't really want to do anything where I had to take too much of my clothes off since that would be problematic giving a lecture half naked to my students, ha!

If your ink could speak, what would it say?

Growing up I was super into "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury. I always want my ink to tell a story of my life and experiences. I have stars from all the states I've called home, flowers and gem stones for my family members, and the story of Icarus and Daedalus. I want my ink to be its own myth, making my life and experience into something worth remembering.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I teach a course on tattoos in the Honors College at Oklahoma State University called "Tattoos As Text." In this course my students conduct research collecting oral histories from tattooed people across the state to document their stories and understand tattoo history in the last state to legalize tattoos in 2006. If I win the $25,000, I want to create an OSU Foundation account to fund the "Inked Oklahoma" Oral History project so my students can continue documenting ink.