I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours..

If you haven't taken the Demographics Poll to the right please do!

Tattoos! I love tattoos. I think (when done well) they are beautiful ways to express yourself as well as pay homage to someone or something. I especially love looking at a sleeve of tattoos and finding all the little hidden pictures and stories within it..too bad I don't know anyone with a sleeve well enough to ask them to let me sit and stare at their arm for an hour. 

I have heard many people say they think it is trashy or wrong for a parent to have tattoos...to those people I say: take the stick out! 

I am not the type to just go into a shop and pick something off the wall or decide to get a tattoo on a whim..I think about my tattoos for about a year before getting them. I always knew I would get tattoos but never wanted them to just be tattoos-I wanted them to be constant reminders of things important to me and my life. 

When I was about 16 or 17 I started trying to figure out what I was going to get when I turned 18. I started drawing (albeit badly) different objects trying to incorporate the initials of family members. It never worked out because it was always ugly. As 18 started creeping up I was in a very bad relationship that I could not get out of. I knew I would be able to end it eventually but had never had the strength thus far. Enter my first tattoo:

 Warning: These pictures were taking with an iPhone so the quality super sucks

 

The writing and color were added just before I got pregnant so the initial tattoo was just the Chinese symbol for Strength. Ironically my boyfriend at the time paid for it haha 

When I had my back surgery they had to cut through "my strength"--just slightly symbolic (that's what that line to the left is. Yes, its on my lower back....but I got it there before it was known as a "tramp stamp!") The dr probably thought I was crazy but I kept asking him to please make sure he lined up my tattoo and stapled it back together well. Thankfully, he did! After going through all the back pain then surgery then pain after I knew I had to acknowledge that time in my life. Hurting my back changed everything in my life. It also made me realize that everything happens for a reason and that is why I had the desire to get that added to my strength symbol. I also had him recolor the whole thing because it had faded over the years and we add the blue because it felt too dark. It hurt horribly because he had to keep going over the scar but was totally worth it!

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Next is the tattoo I got in honor of my mama.  

(I hate how bad this picture is but I'm too lazy to take and upload another one)

I knew I wanted a symbol in her memory instead of words but couldn't figure out what. Then I started drawing (again, badly) different kinds of wings and halos trying to figure out what kind I liked and could never get it just right..then one day I was watching the movie Cast Away and saw this:

It was exactly what I had been trying to draw but couldn't. I finally sketched it and brought it in for the artists interpretation and got it. I love it dearly but while it was healing it lost a lot of its color so I look forward to the day I can get the coloring touched up. Oh and see those 2 marks in the right wing tip? THOSE little bastards are the only 2 stretch marks I got on my belly when pregnant...they just had to go right there?

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please excuse my freakishly veiny wrist
And finally is the tattoo I got in honor of the best thing I ever did--little Miss Hayden! This one is my most recent (I got it the day before her 1st birthday) and took a lot of deliberation on my part. I like to keep my tattoos in places that can be covered and not easily seen so that when I am old and wrinkly no one has to see that unpleasantness. I didn't feel like I would add more to my back and didn't want to put it on my hip and felt that my wrist was a good option. However, I did not want a dark color so I researched white tattoos. When I finally went to get it the artist tried to talk me out of it saying you won't be able to see it. I told him unless it would magically become invisible I was doing it. (I have learned that tattoo artists that are covered in tattoos don't always understand the desire for discretion.) I got it and love it. It is VI VIII IX which is 6 8 9 for Hayden's birthday June 8, 2009. This hurt the worst but the whole time I thought of H's face and reminded myself that it is no worse than childbirth!

So there you have it! My tattoos. 

Anthony has several as well and I am hoping he will get some more but until I get to live vicariously through his new tattoos join my BlogHop and show me yours!