Stephanie's Story


I am so excited to share this story behind the ink with you, because it revolves around two of the people I am closest to — my sister, Stephanie, and her daughter, Addison.

As I’ve shared before, my sister, two of our friends and I all grew up drawing temporary tattoos on each other, and that time in our life must have been influential because now we all have tattoos.

Stephanie (or Steph, as a lot of people call her) was the last in this group to get a tattoo; she got hers this past weekend for her birthday, and I was happy to be home on Labor Day break so I could share the experience with her.

She says that she first knew she wanted to get a tattoo when she was 13, but it was only about a year and a half ago that she started laying the framework for what she really wanted; she knew she wanted it to pertain to love, because, at that time, she was expecting my beautiful niece Addison (or Addi).

What Steph finally decided on getting was an infinity symbol with the word “love” written in the bottom right quadrant of it, which I think has a pretty self-explanatory meaning. Then she personalized the tattoo by adding Addison’s name and birthday above the left side of the symbol.

Because the story of Steph’s tattoo basically tells itself, I would like to tell you all about her tattoo experience (which I got to experience right beside her).

The one thing that stood out about Steph’s experience in both of our minds was the fact that she had a female tattoo artist. Steph’s tattoo artist pointed out that though the industry has been notoriously dominated by men, girls today may have more opportunities than she initially did because women have earned their ranks in the business. This is seen in one of the most famous female tattoo artists (in America, anyway), Kat Von D, being seen on the reality television shows Miami Ink and, more recently, LA Ink. (If you are interested in checking out her highly acclaimed work, here is the link to her site: http://www.katvond.net/ …and I would definitely recommend reading her bio; it’s super interesting!)

A picture of Steph's tattoo artist hard at work.

Aside from being able to relate with her tattoo artist on the level of being a woman as well as a mom, Steph had an overall good experience. She says the first prick of the needle was less painful than she had expected, but as the needle moved more toward her stomach (and other little spots that are more sensitive) it got pretty painful, but she handled it like a champ. In fact, it oddly enough made me think back to her 34-hour long labor that she handled with grace just a little over a year ago.

And with that in mind, Steph says that her favorite part of her tattoo experience was being able to show the tattoo to the little expressive, loving bundle of joy it is for — Addi. Addi is such a smart baby that I don’t think it will take her long to learn that the tattoo is going to be there forever.

Side note: little kids blow my mind with the things they can pick up on both cognitively and socially. I know that may sound really random to some of you, but for those of you who don’t know me personally you have to understand that I absolutely love children, and I have especially loved watching how both of my nieces and my nephew have interacted with my tattoos...that and I'm taking a course in Child and Adolescent Development right now and we talked about the incredible capabilities of newborns in class today. It all just makes me so excited for the day when I will have kids of my own to get inked for!

Anyway, I hope you all have enjoyed this story behind the ink and will join me next week as I talk about my friend, Jane, who recently added to her impressive “resume” of tattoos, with what I believe are her 13th and 14th tattoos. Thanks for reading; I’d love to know what you think, so feel free to leave a comment below!