10.25.2010

My Tattoos

Sara, this is for you!

I know Ive shared my tattoos here somewhere, but I couldnt find the post! So for those of you who have asked to see my tattoos, here you go.

It was actually super hard for me to find one straight on of my arm tattoo! This gorgeous black and white photo was taken by Katelyn Demidow. I cherish this photo.

Me & My Boy

This arm sleeve is a work in progress. All of the spots in between each tattoo is not intended to be black, I just have not gone back to fill it in yet.

All of my tattoos are for my mother. This arm sleeve was started about a year after she passed away. The woman is an Alphonse Mucha painting and it just reminded me of her essence. The rest including the butterfly and the peacock feathers is just going to be full of nature and beauty, things that remind me of her.

The teacups represent her lifelong business. She made jewelry from broken china dishes for almost 30 years. I spent my first several years out of high school working with her. It was what kept our family fed and my mom at home with me. It was a huge part of our lives. Now it is gone, but I am living the same dream in my own ways now. I think you can click on the photo to make it bigger to see the details. There is a cardinal in one of them and 'mom' in another.
Around the woman it has lyrics from a Joni Mitchell song 'River'... its says ' I wish I had a river I could skate away on. This song was one she sang to me as a baby. And I sang to her as she was dying. It is the single most meaningful song in my life.
The crazyness from the back. I think this is one of the first photos Ive seen with all of showing like that! We just took this for the Skyline Fever shoot!
This is my shoulder tattoo, two bluebirds of happiness on a branch of cherry blossoms. Besides the silly black tramp stamp I got on my lower back (not being shown), this was my 3rd real tattoo. The second you cant see b/c this was a cover up of it. If you look in the photo above, the big purple peony is covering up a black celtic love knot. My tattoo artist did an amazing job. I wont go into why its covered, it was sad but had to be done for personal reasons.

I got this tattoo when my mom first beat her breast cancer. We thought she was going to be okay, and this tattoo represented her and I and all that we both personally were going through during this time in our lives.
Im a pretty firm believer of only getting tattoos that mean something personal to you, not just something cute or pretty. And I also believe in making them original, not just copying a pic of the wall. If you want a tattoo, take time to really think it through, the design, the color, the placement. Even if you have to think for a year or two, its worth it. I even went in with a design in my head and my tattooist started drawing it up, I didnt feel it was perfectly what I wanted, so I told him to stop and do it later. You must be 100% sure, its going to be there forever.

And for anyone curious, my tattoo artist is Brian Johnson from austin.

PEACE,
Laura

17 comments:

  1. i am so happy you posted these photos...i love your art.

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  2. Gorgeous pieces...I can't wait til I get one...I'm still looking for that perfect design.

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  3. these are beautiful Laura, i have 3 tattoos that i got when i was too young (16 years ago)that have no real meaning and i am going to be getting one soon that has a true meaning behind it. Thanks for sharing!
    xoxo~Meg

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  4. Your tattoos are so beautiful and I love that they all have such a great meaning to you. Very inspiring!

    -Carrie

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  5. Still gigglin' that you said "tramp stamp"...You are such a nut and you crack me up!

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  6. I love them all Laura! My mom beat her breast cancer, but reading the meanings behind every piece of yours made me tear up a bit remembering the battle and all the emotion involved! Absolutely beautiful!

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  7. that top picture of you and james is just amazing. and it is cool that you have such powerful stories behind all of your tattoos.

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  8. Thanks for sharing your tattoos. I completely agree with you on tatoos. I keep trying to explain it to my sister. All of mine have a meaning. The ones I will be getting in the future will also have meaning.

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  9. Your tattoos and the symbolism behind them is beautiful...I am sure that your mother is watching over you, incredibly proud with her beautiful, talented daughter...I have visited here a few times but thought I would comment today x (I have been wanting a peacock feather tattoo because it holds such personal meaning for me, but I am a big chicken!)

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  10. Laura I love the story of your tattoos! I only have a tiny black flower on my wrist, but it's very special to me. It has 8 petals, one for each member of my family.

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  11. what an amazing post, it actually made me cry cause of the story behind them, i got my second tattoo this year as we lost a very close friend, he died aged 21 it was heartbraking and still is.
    i also agree you should always have meaning behind them and make them you own.
    such a great post, thank for sharing it.

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  12. these are lovely~ im speechless! I hope I can commit to something as strong <3

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  13. these are lovely~ im speechless! I hope I can commit to something as strong <3

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  14. I like this post so much! Amazing.

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  15. wow there beautiful so colourful!!!

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  16. I have 3 tattoos, one of which i did design myself, the rest were "copies" but they all mean something to me... i hope to get more once im out of debt :)

    i love looking at your tattoos though, they are amazing!

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Thank you so much for your sweet comments!