“I would like to dedicate my tattoo to my dear cousin, whose recent death has left my family and I reeling with heartbreak. He was raised with me along the prairies of Illinois, before journeying west to find a home at Naropa. If I could honor his life in your beautiful work, I would be forever grateful.
‘To the man who showed us –with quirky smile, gentle wit – that family is more than both blood and name; whose sun dawned with ours beneath Prairie State sky, and set heartbreakingly soon behind the Flatirons.
You are missed and loved eternally, and we will carry you always toward the endless horizon of prajna garbha.
Topher Stoelting, 1990-2014″
Ashton Howe’s “to the prairie”
The Boulder Tattoo Project 