Tat Chat

I was thinking about what kind of post I should do next, I wanted it to be something happy after all the down, and so the idea for my “Tat Chat” came about.

I have three tattoos, and will have more. I love my tattoos because they all have meaning, they’re not just a picture I liked; they’re illustrations of my personality. These are my tattoos and the story behind each of them… Please feel to share yours as well!

I got my first tattoo when I was 18. I had permission to do it sooner, I had the paper work, but I just couldn’t do it (needle phobia!). I knew what I wanted when I was 15 and at 18 I finally wanted to do it. The fact that my mom was out of town and wouldn’t be going with me (and adding her commentary to my decision making) may also have given me a little push. 

These are three Kanji (Japanese) characters meaning love, trust, and friendship; the three most important things in life (in my humble opinion). I’d like to add to the list down the road.

My second tattoo is a stylized claddagh. When I was younger I always wanted to go to Ireland, a dream that actually came true, every geography report I had to do in middle school was about Ireland in some way so my love of the claddagh started pretty early. When I went to Ireland when I was 15 I bought a ring (that I wear to this day) and when I had a gift card to the tattoo parlor burning a hole in my purse when I was 19, a claddagh seemed like a good choice. The hands symbolize friendship, the heart love, and the crown loyalty. The four knots in the middle represent my mom, my brother, my husband, and my best friend; they’ll always be in my heart (I know *vomit* but if something’s going to be on me forever it has to have meaning). I had a different artist, from the same shop, do my claddagh and I was super happy with her work and she was just a really cool person and I really never want to get tattooed by anyone else. It was a no-brainer that I’d go to her for Ayden’s tattoo.

I always knew I’d get a tattoo for Ayden. I always imagined it would be his cute little footprint inked forever on my foot with his name under it in a nice script. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Ayden’s tattoo would be in memoriam.

Ayden’s tattoo is an angel panda, with his first and middle names, and his birth and “angel” days. One of Ayden’s nicknames was panda, my brother and his friends all have animal nicknames (Bat, Yak, Bambi) because they’re first names rhyme with that animal. Since Ayden didn’t rhyme with any animal he was dubbed Ayden the Panda; and it suited him, he was very cuddly, so it stuck. When I was talking to Jen (the tattoo artist) about what I wanted we went over everything with a lot of detail, she wanted this to be perfect for me. She told me to go to a website to find a font that I like, she went through a few pages with me, she told me to look more at home and email her with what I like so she could add it to her sketches. I saw a font I liked and said so, she said “Ok well keep looking and make sure. But if that’s the one you decide on just email me and say ‘Jen I like…’” she looks at the name of the font “Shit Happens”. She just looked at me and said “Wow, that’s bad” and my husband and I just started laughing. What else could you do with that? It was weirdly fitting, it was a simple truth we knew all too well, and I think that’s why I still chose it for a majority of the lettering in Ayden’s name.