Yes, more tattoos! Always more tattoos.

The first tattoo I actually got back in March, JUST before COVID really hit. It was a Friday the 13th, and we weren’t even sure if parlor’s would be open as a result of the pandemic. Things hadn’t completely hit AZ super hard just yet, so they did operate as normal. I thought maybe there wouldn’t be a big turn out, but a decent amount of people did show up. Anyway, I’ve always visually loved maps, but this tattoo took on even more of a meaning now. The world is just one place, even though people break us down into continents, countries, states, etc. But really, we’re all just people on one planet – no matter where you are on the map. COVID really proved that, affecting the entire world as one. Not that I got this tattoo because of COVID, but the theme just kinda fit.

The second tattoos is actually a transformation of my original tattoo into a bigger meaning. My first tattoo was for my Pop-Pop who had passed, but I had other relatives who had passed since then. I wanted to find a way to incorporate everyone – living or not – into the tattoo, without having a list of some sort. When I was in college, I took a creative writing class where I wrote a poem about my grandparents. I used tree imagery as the idea of foundation, and the poem was printed for several of my family members. I also made a tree drawing for my Grams where I wrote her and my Pop-Pop’s name in the trunk, their kids’ names in the branches, and the grandkids’ names in the leaves. Since this tree metaphor was reoccurring, I decided to turn the tattoo into an overarching theme of family. The tattoo artist is awesome for working with me, and I love the way it turned out.

So, since one of these tattoos is a reform, I guess this brings my total up to 13! More to come of course, especially since there’s another Friday the 13th this fall.

Thanks for reading!