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Jimbo Tarpey, 34, has had the outline of Minnesota tattooed on the left side of his back since 2010.

It was his first tattoo. And he promised himself he’d leave it empty until Minnesota got a new state flag.

“I’ve always been a huge critic of our flag. I’ve always thought that it’s kind of sucked. And when people go, ‘Oh, really? Why do you think that?’ I’m like, do you know what it looks like? And then people would kind of shrug,” said Tarpey.

, the Minnesota flag featured an intricate drawing of a Native American man riding off into the sunset as a white farmer tills the land.

Fourteen years later, he finally got his tattoo filled with an eight-point North Star and colored in with dark and light blue. Tarpey had a tattoo artist in Quito, Ecuador finish his Minnesota tattoo last week ahead of Statehood Day on May 11, when the redesigned flag will officially become the state flag.

Friends and family have told him for years to get it filled, but he wanted to stick to his promise. He plans to tell them on Saturday that he fulfilled that promise (if they don’t see this article first).

“There’s a sense of catharsis finally getting it done. It felt really good to finally complete the task and finally follow through with it and it looks great,” he said. “Now I get to focus on a potential next tattoo which I might wait a long time for because I seem to not commit to one unless I really really want one.”

To him, the tattoo honors his roots in Minnesota. He grew up in New Hope and has lived most of his life in the Twin Cities metro area.

Since 2022, Tarpey has been traveling the world from Alaska to Argentina, and makes 

about the history of the places he visits. He travels with a motorcycle that has a Minnesota license plate.

He’s met a lot of people, and sometimes runs into a Midwesterner or fellow Minnesotan. Those encounters made him realize they had more in common outside of the states: the accents, being Minnesota nice, a sarcastic sense of humor and appreciation of the lakes and forests in Minnesota.

“The biggest reason why I got it is it doesn’t matter where I end up living or where I am. I will always be Minnesotan, whether it’s my accent, sense of humor, like just who I am. It is a part of my identity. It’s where I spent most of my life,” said Tarpey.

He doesn’t have a set date for the end of his travels, but said he will always represent Minnesota wherever he goes.

“We know that we’re a flyover state. We know we’re not the most well known state. And we know we’re not the loudest state in the room. And we’re okay with that. We’re okay not being, you know, the boisterous ones.

“I think that is also something that I’ve reflected in myself is, something about us is that we’ll kind of be quietly in the back doing our own thing. And, you know, we’re not visited like all the other parts of the country and nobody may know where Minnesota is, but that’s okay. And we’re totally cool with it,” said Tarpey.

Minnesota News

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Nicole Ki

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Jimbo Tarpey got the new Minnesota state flag tattooed on his back in Ecuador ahead of the flag becoming official on Statehood Day on May 11.

Man sits on motorcycle at the top of a hill

This man might be the first to have a tattoo of the new Minnesota flag

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