Inked

     New obsession?  I could spend hours perusing the internet looking at other peoples ink.  Tattoos.  I love them.  I'm curious to why people permanently have certain images on their body.  I love when people post a description of their tattoo and why they got it. One of my fav sites to look at is Check Out my Ink, people are uploading new pics every day.
     I only have two tats, so far.  My first one I got when I was 19.  I went with my exboyfriend.  I wanted one, but I didn't want it to mean anything.  I was young and didn't know what would be meaningful to me when I was older, so I just went with meaningless.  I decided to get colorful bubbles, on my ankle.  I drew them on and walked around with them for a day or two to be sure I liked them.  Oh my gosh....wow, it hurt!!  Not to mention the tattoo artist who was very well known in the area, was an ass to me.  (The night before when Tony got his tattoo, I watched this man have about five to six people hanging out in his space while he was tattooing.  When he did mine, he wouldn't let Tony or Rocky come back with me.  He said there wasn't enough room. Until I almost passed out, then he let them come be with me.  He also mentioned that I'd apparently never given birth or the tattoo wouldn't be pain to me.  Like he had any idea what childbirth felt like.  Ass.) 

Almost 20 years later, I decided on another piece, that actually meant something to me.  I'd also been through natural childbirth twice (no drugs).  And the tattoo was still painful.  But, I handled it much better this time.  I chose to have my new tat on my  back.  When you work in a school, you have to be careful where you put stuff like that!  I had an idea in my head of what I wanted, took several pics with me to the tattoo artist  at Asylum and she drew up a design for me.  After that I tweaked it a bit to my liking, decided on colors and placement then we made our appointment.

Drawing done by tattoo artist

Design after I added some more limbs, leaves and a circle

still smiling!

 I chose a tree of life pattern to represent family, family tree, roots, mothering & sheltering your family.  I decided to only use color in this tat, since most all tats have black outlines, I just wanted something different.  Lots of pink since that's my fav color, and the initials JAF to represent my babies, see my other post about their names.

DONE!!  woohoo!  I love it!

  

We actually made it a family affair, lol.  My stepson, Joey was turning 18 and we had promised him that he could get a tat when he was 18.  So the three of us went together as well as Joey's girlfriend, two other friends and my bff. We took over the tattoo studio, lol!  (that was good for me, comfort zone)  There was a minor snag in the event, the tattoo artist I had been talking with was unable to do my tattoo, she had gotten behind and it would be very late if I waited for her to be done, so I lucked out and the owner, Daniel Jones, of the shop was able to do my tat!  

Joey's  new tat (verse from Bible)

Lee's new tat, also has JAF in it, can you see it?  Tattoo designed by Joey.

    Do you have any tattoos?  what kind?  any special meanings?