Boston Marathon Bombing Tattoos Featured By Salem Photographer

BOSTON (CBS) -- In eight months, photographer Christopher Padgett snapped thousands of pictures of freshly inked tattoos on dozens of New Englanders. Each piece of body art he captured is a depiction of the model's idea of Boston Strong.

"I had this guy who has a Boston strong [tattoo] with a strong arm and then a lobster claw on the end," Padgett said Sunday at his home in Salem, where he set up a studio to take the final portraits for his project, Bled for Boston.

"There's this sense of humor that always seems to come through with Boston."

Padgett got his own tattoo last May memorializing the Boston Marathon bombings. While getting the skyline needled onto his forearm at Good Mojo's in Beverly, Padgett considered how many others were probably doing the same thing.

In the wake of the terrorist attack, countless tattoo shops agreed to donate proceeds from Boston-themed tattoos to The One Fund.

Beginning April 3, Padgett will display portraits of the people who "Bled for Boston" at the Boston Center for Adult Education. With donations generated on the Internet, he is also able to publish those very personal photos in a book, the proceeds of which will benefit Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

"I'm asking people to keep donating so I can print more books. By selling more books, more money can go to Spaulding," Padgett said.

One of Spaulding's more prominent patients, transit officer Richard Donohue, sat down with Padgett on Sunday to unveil his tattoo, which commemorates the day he nearly died in a Watertown shootout with the bombing suspects.

"I think the events last April touched a lot of people on a profound level and [getting a tattoo] was a way to conceptualize their feelings," Donohue said.

To learn more, visit www.bledforboston.com.

To donate money and receive a copy of the book "Bled for Boston," visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/bled-for-boston.

ONLINE: Boston Center for Adult Education

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