After Kai Troge endured an accident during his time as a camp counselor, he received a myriad of letters from concerned campers. One of them inspired his first tattoo.

It read: “If you make a thousand paper cranes, you’ll feel better.”

Troge, a State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry freshman biotechnology major, had been making a left turn on his bike when a car struck him.

“When I was in the emergency room, people were like, ‘How are you alive?’” he remembered.

The camper’s letter struck a chord with Troge, who immediately began incorporating paper cranes into his life.

“I put them places. I gave them to people. I just started making cranes everywhere. It became part of who I was,” he said.

Historically, the story of a thousand cranes comes from a Japanese legend. It states that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will, in turn, be granted any wish of his or her heart’s desire.

It prompted him to get a paper crane tattooed on the middle of his left forearm, which signifies the appreciation for life Troge gained after the accident.

He brought a design for the tattoo in to Pins & Needles Electric Tattooing in Hopewell Junction, New York. The artist, Erika Harris, copied every detail of his drawing.

The piece is a combination of a geometric style tattoo with a watercolor tattoo. The latter, which seems to be a recent trend, has been seen as an incredibly difficult concept to pull off.

Troge’s tattoo, however, is strikingly realistic, as if he took a brush and paint to his skin.

He describes the placement of his tattoo as being on his “accident arm,” a part of his body that’s still scarred by the near-death experience.

Says Troge: “A tattoo that’s as significant as this one should be seen.”

Published on February 17, 2014 at 10:44 pm

Contact Naomi: ncfalk@syr.edu