Terminally ill Ohio man, with over 400 matching tattoos with strangers, visits Milwaukee friend in hospice

By Yukare Nakayama

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    MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (WDJT) — A man from Toledo, Ohio, who has been on a mission to get as many matching tattoos with strangers is back in Milwaukee for a heartwarming reunion.

Don Caskey was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer in 2019 and since then has made it a quest to get tattoos with strangers. He met Joleen Lewis, a woman from Milwaukee, in 2020 after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and got matching butterfly tattoos. Earlier this week they were reunited while she is in hospice at Froedtert Hospital.

“It was very touching, it was very huge, it was really nice to be here for her,” said Caskey.

Caskey has over 400 tattoos all over his body, most of them matching tattoos with total strangers.

“The only thing I can take with me when I pass away is memories so I started asking random strangers if they wanted to make a human connection and get a matching tattoo with me before I pass away,” said Caskey.

Each tattoo is a reminder for him to live his very best life every day. On Thursday, Caskey met Kinya Segura, Lewis’s sister, for the first time.

Segura described her sister as goofy, lovable and a dancer.

“He giving her the strength to keep pushing, fight until you can’t fight no more and she knows she has a lot of people behind her,” said Segura.

No matter what the outcome might be, Caskey said it’s about the time we have together.

“It really is the little things in life that matter,” said Caskey.

Caskey created a non-profit last year called Stranger Ink which helps raise funds for people who are terminally ill.

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