Tattoos are a beautiful way to immortalize art on your body. Coming from a 19 year old with five tattoos, I love how I can either plan on a tattoo for months, or just spontaneously fall in love with the idea of a piece, and boom. It is now forever on my body.
Some people get freaked out by this idea, but I am enthralled by it. I got my first tattoo when I was 16. My older brother came into my room and asked, “Do you want to go get a tattoo with me?” He already had an idea for us to get matching ones, and I was immediately on board.
His plan was to get an Irish celtic knot because we wanted to pay homage to our family. What he found was the triquetra, an intricate piece that symbolizes the cycle of life and the family unit.
We got this design on the inner part of our right wrist. It was such a painful placement for my first tattoo, but it has made every piece since then feel like nothing.
I didn’t get another tattoo for a year and a half, but I think it was well worth it. My family took a trip to Las Vegas for my brother’s 21st birthday. While there, we decided to get the famous flash tattoos.
We each got two tattoos, for either $10 or $20. My choices were these minimalist stars and a little daisy to go on my left arm. To this day, I get the most compliments for my stars.
A couple months later, my mom and I had to make the horrible decision to put our cat, Cali, down. Her health had been deteriorating, and her quality of life was just way too low. She was the last of my childhood cats, so I decided to memorialize her and my first cat, Big Boy, in a tattoo.
After being in Virginia to visit family for a couple days, I made an appointment with a tattoo artist. It was a gorgeous, fine line tattoo that went on my left shoulder blade. The artist did an incredible job, so next time I am in Virginia, I will definitely go back to her.
This tattoo is my favorite one to date. I love the placement and the vibe of it. So simple, yet it holds so much meaning. I love when people ask me about it because I get to tell them all about my sweet kitties.
My newest tattoo happened on a whim. My best friend told me that she would be going to get some ink the next day and invited me along. Of course, I immediately started plotting what I should add to my collection.
I was torn between two choices. The first was a quote, “There’s escape in escaping,” and the second was a bow and arrow image. A surprise to no one, both had to do with someone who I idolize whole-heartedly, Taylor Swift.
I settled on the image because it represents one of my favorite songs, “The Archer.” This song means the world to me. It depicts how it feels to live everyday with anxiety, how it feels to be an overthinker, how it feels to self-sabotage and how it feels to live in constant fear that nobody will love you once they have truly seen all of you.
This tattoo, like the one on my shoulder, holds so much meaning. It’s a reminder to me that other people hold my same fears, and in some way, it helps me step outside myself. It also serves as inspiration that I can take on all the things that frighten me.
I can be the “Archer” and take on a plot that allows me to be vulnerable, but I can also find the strength inside myself to stand up.
My tattoos serve as a look inside my soul. The parts that make myself so bubbly and full of love, but also the parts that keep me up at night.
They are an extension of what I feel now and who I will always aspire to be.
