I Got Inked

I've known for years that I wanted to get a tattoo - probably since sometime in high school. Over the years I changed my mind about what I wanted, where it should go, etc. Because I kept changing my mind, I never actually got one. I figured if I thought of a tattoo idea and it stuck with me for more than a short while, that's how I would know the time was right to get one.

I finally found an idea that stuck with me for more than a week.

After much thinking, scouring the Internet for ideas and inspiration and really doing some soul searching, I finally decided on what I wanted and I decided the time was now. That was about a month ago. I drew up (or rather put together in Paint.net) the idea I saw in my head and then just let the image file sit on my computer for a while.

The ribbon is the miscarriage/pregnancy loss ribbon and obviously there are angel wings around it. There are four sparkles/stars - one for each baby I have lost due to miscarriage. The words are the ending to one of my favorite poems about miscarriage/pregnancy loss:

An angel in the book of life wrote down my baby's birth,
And whispered as she closed the book,
"Too beautiful for Earth."

A week later I went back to the image and made a few changes and let it sit again for a bit. When I went back to it, I was still in love with the image so I went to a local tattoo shop and asked for a price quote. The price didn't seem too much so I made an appointment for two weeks from then. It was my next weekend off work and I decided that if I still wanted it for the next two weeks it was meant to be.

Fast forward to this past weekend:

I still wanted it.

My sister, who was also getting a tattoo that day, and her boyfriend went along for some support - and also to take pictures.

 

After all the physical pain I've felt in my lifetime, I decided a tattoo couldn't hurt THAT bad, right? I was mostly right. It was uncomfortable to a point, but the pain was no where near pain I've felt before. To be honest, it reminded me a lot of when I was younger and had to have an allergy test done. They scratched my back 100+ times and put some solutions on it to see which ones I reacted to. The pain was similar to getting all the scratches.

 

The worst of it came from the wings I think, since it was all outline. The lettering hurt a little more also and my arm kind of kept wanting to twitch when he got to the extreme sides. No biggie though.