Laurie Vincent, tattoo artist and frontman of Soft Play, shares a deeply personal story in a one-minute documentary film, where we see him give his father his very first tattoo.

Both the story and the tattoo itself are profoundly therapeutic. For years, Laurie’s father struggled to accept his tattoos — and, more broadly, the path Laurie chose for himself. Over time, that distance only grew. A turning point came after his father suffered a stroke. From that moment, their relationship began to shift, creating space for conversation and a rethinking of the past.

The tattoo Laurie gives his father for his 60th birthday appears almost naïve at first glance: a cheetah sitting on a cloud, with the initials LX — Roman numerals marking the age. But the meaning runs much deeper. It’s a gesture of reconciliation, an attempt to close an old emotional gap and find a form of recognition that had long been missing.

For Laurie, this moment becomes a kind of healing — a quiet but powerful confirmation that the path he chose is finally accepted.

“I feel like I’ve never heard him say out loud that he’s proud of me before. Maybe he has, but I can’t remember it, so that felt really significant. It’s a kind of full-circle healing moment — maybe for all the ways I’ve felt I disappointed him. Getting the tattoo feels like his version of a nod of approval, and I think that’s something a lot of people want from their parents.”

The story is accompanied by fragments from Laurie’s new music project, Big Truck. Here, the music isn’t just a backdrop — it continues the conversation, touching on vulnerability, processed experience, and moving forward.