In the run-up to the 2026 Ottawa elections, candidates are accustomed to laying out their cards: platforms, promises, meetings with voters. But Jeff Leiper, a 56-year-old contender for mayor, has his own visual manifesto – and it’s inked directly onto his skin. For him, tattoos are not adornment or rebellion, but a kind of chronicle: each stroke marks a turning point after which a person is no longer the same as they were before.