I don't know how everyone feels about tattoos, but to me they are an amazing way to express ourselves, a way to carry things with us everyday whether they are words or symbols. I have always loved tattoos so it shouldn't be a shock that I got my first one the summer after I graduated high school. It is small and only cost my forty dollars and I was probably only under the needle for maybe 10 minutes. The artist told me how to take care of it, covered it up and sent me home. I also had to hide it from my aunt and uncle because they were strictly against tattoos, they still are, but I think they've realized that I'm not going to stop getting them. Before my big tattoo, I had 4 small ones, the most expensive one being 60.

This one was by far the most expensive, costing me 300 dollars and I would not trade it for anything in the world it turned out absolutely stunning. It's a memorial tattoo for my mom who passed away when I was 13, and she meant everything to me she was my best friend and she was gone before I even knew what happened. I lost her to breast cancer. When the doctors found it it was already stage 4 and she was given a year to live. I was only 9 when she was diagnosed, I was never told how long she had until I was older, at the time all I knew was my mom was sick and I couldn't do anything to help. She told everyone she was fine that she was going to fight, and she did she fought for four years, she never and I mean never gave up. She always told me she would be there to dance at my wedding, she would be there to tell all the embarrassing stories of me, she would be there when I had kids and proudly proclaim she was a grandmother. That was my mom. She was the type of person that she would help you however she could, she was the kindest person I know. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying she was perfect, she had flaws but everything she did she never regretted.

So this tattoo is a memorial tattoo for her and I wanted it to capture exactly who she was to me and thats exactly what I got. Between my boyfriend, the tattoo artist that did it, and I we did just that. I've seen many memorial tattoos for cancer and just simple memorial tattoos in general and those are not my mom. No offense to those kinds of tattoos that's just not what I wanted. So I told my boyfriend what aspects I wanted in the tattoo, and this is exactly what I told him. I wanted to somehow incorporate a dragon, a fairy, the breast cancer ribbon, and the aquarius symbol. Hearing it like that I'm sure sounded really confusing or as if they wouldn't go together at all but my mom loved dragons and fairies, she was an aquarius and of course the ribbon. Below is what he came up with.

So next was to find the artist that I wanted to do my tattoo and with my boyfriends help we found the perfect artist. We went and met him gave him the design and he refined it for me and told me he would see me the next day. I could hardly sleep or pay attention in my classes. It made January 11th bearable because this year on the 11th of January was the 7 year anniversary of my mothers passing. It's always a hard day when it comes around.

When I got there, he gave me the paper work I needed to fill, made a copy of my ID and showed me what he had come up with and it was beautiful. The tattoo took just about 2 hours to complete and it turned out absolutely stunning.

Below is the finished tattoo and I love it.