“Back in 2000, I was in the crux of my angry days,” Hector said. At the root of that anger was a series of hazardous missions to hot zones in the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Kosovo. The visions of humanity at its worst seared his memory, plaguing him with nightmares. He would awaken to a different pain – a battle scar on his back that he said felt like it was always bleeding. When a friend and fellow Ranger veteran showed him an article about amputees using ink therapy to deal with ghost limb issues, he readily agreed to give it a try. Soon his back was emblazoned with large, Old English letters spelling out a single primal sentiment: RAGE. “Mine wasn’t any ordinary rage,” Hector said. “It was how I felt and how I behaved. And after the twin towers went down, that rage increased. Somehow, this tattoo became an open doorway to every demon that wanted a place to stay.” With his PTSD at a critical point, Hector endured failed marriages – including one in 2004 that ended with a flashbackinduced standoff with police that nearly cost him his life. Gradually, he turned things around. He became a therapist and a family man. And while he was working to improve what he carried on the inside, his own skin betrayed him. It was a constant reminder of the man he no longer wished to be. Hector reached out to Derrick and received an almost immediate response, and soon he was making the hour-and-ahalf drive to Rochester. “I walked into the tattoo parlor, where I saw the humble giant who is Derrick with the mighty ink warrior, Misty,” he said. “She may be small at first glance, but she grows into a titan as the minutes pass while getting to know her.” Hector knew he didn’t want a cover-up. His was a past that could not be hidden – it was better to show that from a seed of grief and anger grew a plant of hope and perseverance. With “the touch of an angel doing God’s work,” Misty added six new letters to his body to form a new message: COURAGEOUS. The reveal, Hector said, was fraught with emotion. “I flashed back to hundreds of events where my rage destroyed, hurt, and left others in its wake,” he said. “I turned to Misty and saw in her face a deep understanding of what she had done. In case anyone is wondering, some angels are inked. The hard ones – who have been there with us and know that this is the place where most angels fear to tread – are inked.” The transformation goes beyond mere symbolism, and Hector feels that Derrick and Misty have helped his journey continue in a positive direction. “There is no more bleeding out from scars – I feel calm,” Hector said. “I feel my past has now caught up to me and it was met with a courageous soul that can heal the beaten up and tired part.”
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HOMELAND / December 2016
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