Two sides to every story..

When I was 16 in highschool; I had asked my mom about what she thought of tattoos. She didn’t like them and told me that if I ever did get one that I had to have meaning behind it. While in school; I was diagnosed with depression. Since I did want a tattoo; I decided that I would design one that had purpose and meaning behind it. I believe that a person has two sides of their body; the left side is the flow of your heart and what you believe in. And the right side is where you draw your strength from; where you came from and grew up with. It’s your grounded side. So I designed a tattoo to be on my left foot; so that whenever I felt depressed; or I wanted to do something harmful to myself in any way; that when I looked down at the ground and saw the back of my feet; I would have a reminder to look back up and keep my head held high. I wanted to incorporate my belief; and a reason to keep breathing. So I have a heart that can be connected into an infinity sign; with six circles on the outside of one side of the heart (circles are continuous; therefore represents the six days of the week) and a cross on the inside of the heart to represent God and the seventh day as Sabbath. This tattoo was my first tattoo of three; my second tattoo is on my left hand as well. I believe that if you love music; then it’s a type of air that keeps you alive; keeps you breathing, and steady. I didn’t want to just “follow the crowd” and get “music = air” written in cursive on my arm. But when I got bored in high school; I used to draw a music 🎵 note on my the top part of my left thumb; and would draw it in pen every day to the point I was getting a stain there and people would be asking me if it was real. In 2016, five years after my first tattoo; I went and got it done on my hand finally. So when you cover both notes; the middle of the note is blank to represent the “=“ sign; and the rest of the notes are not filled in to represent the “air”. My last tattoo is on my right ankle. It’s a cartoon character from the early 1930’s dark artist era Edward Gorey. The character is from his book called “The Doubtful Guest.” My late grandmother enjoyed this cartoon very much and told me it reminded her of a child growing into a teenager and coming into a house and destroying it for 18 years. This character on my ankle is also holding a rose in representation of my other late grandma whom loved to garden and roses were her favorite flower. The scarf on him is in representation of my mom and myself as we enjoy the Harry Potter series; and the small ball is a golf ball to represent my father and grandfather whom both loved to play. They are on my ankle because without an ankle you have no support; and they are my support system; the roots to my being. I hope you enjoyed these tattoos as I have creating them. My father recently passed two days after my birthday last month and I plan on getting his last voicemail on my right inner arm of a sound wave of his voice. It’s the last time I heard his voice before ALS took it away from him completely.