Ethan Kaid Kindle

Ethan Kaid Kindle died in Pampa, Texas, on September 6, 2026.

Though he resided in the esoteric, quiet depths of the universe, Ethan’s life began grounded in the Texas Panhandle. He was born in Pampa on September 13, 1980, to Johnny Foster Kindle and Susie Jo Mulanax.

Known by his monograms EK1 and AKN, Ethan was an artist with an extraordinary mind and endless curiosity of how things worked.

Art and tinkering ran in Ethan’s blood. His mother, Susie, was a highly creative thinker and maker; his father, Johnny, and stepfather, Jeff, were mechanics. Ethan wove those threads together. He loved Harleys and hot rods, punk rock and outlaw country, and things with grit, noise, beauty, and rebellion. His mechanical ingenuity merged with his artistic nature in tattooing.

Ethan built his first tattoo machines in the late 1990s, practicing on orange peels before tattooing people. For twenty-five years, tattooing was his primary art form and a place of connection. His tattoos decorate people all across the country. People came to his chair not just to be tattooed, but to talk, some returning as much to be heard as for his art. He was brilliant and complicated, goofy and somber, rebellious and deeply sensitive, with a slow Southern drawl, a wild sense of humor, and an intensity unmistakably his own.

The sweetest part of Ethan belonged to his daughters, Zoe and Johnnie. He loved his girls with a fierce tenderness reserved especially for them. With them, the tattoo artist and biker was simply Dad: silly, goofy, playful, affectionate, and sweet. They would reassure others, “I know he looks scary, but he’s not. He’s sweet.” They carry forward his humor, creativity, tenderness, and the particular love that belonged between Ethan and his girls.

To his sister, Jasmine, Ethan was a kindred spirit. They were best friends through much of their early years bonded by skateboards, music, muscle cars, and a shared resistance to conformity. Their relationship became more complicated with time, but the love forged between the two remained part of their life-defining stories.

Ethan is survived by daughters, Zoe Kindle and Johnnie Kindle; sister, Jasmine Kindle; stepfather, Jeff Reat, who raised him as a son; and nieces, Lily Hilliard and Cora Dennis. His family will carry on his love, artistic nature, and rebellious spirit. He is also beloved by Krystal Cruz and Jordan Douglas, alongside extended family, friends, clients, fellow artists, and chosen family across the country who will carry on his stories and memories of music, conversation, and laughter. Ethan was preceded in death by his parents, Susie Reat and Johnny Kindle.

Ethan was cremated on September 10, accompanied by notes, drawings, memories, and stories from those who loved him. Celebrations of life will be held in San Antonio and Pampa later in the year with details shared by his family. Memorials in his name may be made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).