Scott Schinto

Name: Scott Schinto

Occupation: Physical education teacher

Tattoos: Daughter’s heartline around the words “Just Breathe” (wrist) and a biomechanical arm (forearm)

Q: Could you explain the tattoo on your wrist?

A: This is a tattoo of the birth of my daughter. Her tattoo looks just like this except her [words are] solid and mine are outlined; we did that on her 18th birthday.

Q: What about the other one [on your forearm]?

A: This one has a lot of things involved in it. The words “strength,” “belief” and “courage” were really important to me when our family was going through cancer and those were words that we lived by in our house. And this logo here (at the bottom of tattoo) is the Ironman logo. The Ironman is a triathlon where you swim 2.5 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles, so I put this one because I’m an Ironman and you have to have an iron will to survive the Ironman. And then people would always say I’m half man-half machine, which is what the biomechanical tattoo represents and along the way of all the years of doing all the training, you get cuts, bumps, bangs, bruises, which is why it has all the stitches in there.

Q: Why do you get tattoos? Why do you support them?  

A: People hang pictures on their wall at home, they have pictures in their office. My memorable pictures are on my arm or my wrist, somewhere on my body, and it has significant meaning to me, so I just carry my artwork around with me everywhere I go.