Ink

I know tattoos are not for everyone. I, however, am a huge fan of tattoos. I love the art and design of them, the meaning, the boldness, the over all look. I think tattoos can make a huge statement. I love that all kinds of people have tattoos. It's not just your typical stereotype of biker gangs anymore! I also think tattoos have to mean something. After all, if you're going to commit to a piece of art permanently becoming a part of you, it better mean something now, and still mean something to you 20 years from now.
I never thought Tom would get a tattoo, but he surprised me on my 30th birthday, blogged about here. It was the most amazing birthday surprise ever! It meant so much to me, super sentimental! :-) Since then we've been itching to get more done.
We finally found a shop that we like, an artist that we trusted, and a design we love and got our tattoos last week. Our artist, Steph, was awesome! She was recommended to us by our neighbor and was amazing! She was great at keeping us distracted too. It took her about 3 .5 hours for mine and 3 hours for Tom's. Sitting still that long was helped with her great conversations! She made the time go a little faster! We took her our design ideas and she came up with the final versions. Tom wanted to get his interpretation of a tree of life with the boys initials incorporated somehow. I loved the idea, especially for what the tree of life represents (at least what it represents for me) so I stole his idea. :-) We didn't get the exact same thing. Our designs are different yet similar enough, so you know that they mean the same thing to each of us. Instead of the boys initials, I added 4 birds flying in the breeze, representing Tom and the 3 boys. And just to touch on what the tree of life means to me.....It symbolizes our family. As the boys grow older and go their separate ways, like the branches of the tree, and do their own things in life, they will always be connected to each other and to Tom and I. Just like the branches get their start at the trunk of the tree and everything is connected to the roots. No matter what happens, where ever life takes them, we all have the same roots. Anyway....Here are our tattoos.

Tom also has an M in the roots for our name.








When the boys saw mine the next morning and I explained what it meant, Jack and Ty each picked out what bird they wanted to be. :-)