If you would have asked me five years ago if I ever saw myself with a tattoo I would have told you absolutely not. I never had an interest in them. I don’t hate them, and I don’t judge others who have them, but I personally never had anything I wanted permanently on my body. Fast forward five years and I am sitting in a hospital bed at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia recovering from an emergency C-section and grieving the loss of my daughter, and suddenly my mindset changed. I finally had something that I never would regret being on my body for the rest of my life.
I remember sitting there and Jeff looks over at me and asks what I thought about getting tattoo’s in honor of Layne. I thought about it for a second and loved the idea. I loved the thought of a permanent reminder of everything we went through. It would be with me forever, just as she will be, and be a constant reminder of our journey. I quickly jumped on board and started racking my brain for ideas of what I wanted to get and where I wanted it. I was not sold on anything too big and loved the idea of something small and dainty. After a few weeks of thinking on it I settled on just her name. It was simple, yet profound. Her name means everything to me. It represents our journey.
Last Friday Jeff, his mom, brothers, and I jumped in the car and headed to our appointment. Once we arrived we were greeted by Mike, the tattoo artist. We then all gathered at the counter and each filled him in on what we wanted. He took his time and was so patient with each of us newbies as he drafted up a sketch of our ideas. After some tweaking everyone was happy and it was time to start. Dawn, my mother in law, went first and handled it like a champ. She set the pain tolerance bar high, she didn’t even seem phased by it. Before long it was my turn. I was starting to get a little nervous, but I was ready to get started! He started with just the L to give me an idea with how the needle feels and I am not going to lie, it hurt. After I gave him the ok to continue within about five minutes he was done. I quickly hopped off the table and couldn’t wait to see it. It was a little red, but it looked so good! It was perfect. I loved everything about it.
Today has been a week since getting it, and every time I look down at my arm I smile. It is my new favorite accessory
xoxo