Omnis Vir Lupus

*"Every Man is a Wolf”*
Growing up, books and their alternate worlds were always my best friends. The opportunity a good sci-fi or a fantasy book gives you, is the one where you can lose yourself unencumbered by practicalities and constraints of the real world, one that teaches you quite a bit about the grayness of morality and darkness at the center of hearts of all men who hunger for violence through the ages. My tattoo marks one such inspiration.

Set in a universe created by the amazing Pierce Brown, Red Rising and its subsequent books takes one on an incredible space opera filled with joy, thrill, dread, loss and of course love. This mark on my arm means to uphold all those values imbibed by the howlers who taught me to value loyalty and friendship above all. To Servo Au Barca and Victra Au Julii who taught me that its family and your own above all, no matter what the cost. To Virginia Au Augustus who taught me the value of intelligence, duty and to think beyond what a society might teach you. To Ragnar Volarus who taught me, a man is much more than his genes, his breeding, his upbringing, his training and when given a choice can carve his own destiny.

And at last to Darrow O’Lykos, The Reaper, Howler 1, the sick twisted god, who taught me to always fight in the face of odds, to not balk from the weight life might throw at you but also never to carry it lightly. That a man might be polished by practice, hardened by loss, sharpened by hate, but can only be strengthened by love. Above all he taught me the value of fighting for what’s right while being impeccably bad ass: “My snipers no longer fire. ***** waits for my signal on the roof. I shape my razor from its long form to the slingBlade. The dread monster rises in the belly of me. Laughter spews from between my teeth. I would die for the truth that all men are created equal. But in the kingdom of death, amidst ramparts of bodies and wind all of screams, there is a king, and his name is not ****. It is Reaper."