You've got an awful lot of Ink for someone so young

When I worked at restaurant in my younger days.... the name of this post is something one of our distributors said to me. I had no idea what he meant... I was that naive... he laughed at me... and pointed out my tattoos. Ohhhhhh yeah... yeah I do.

I have always been an avid lover of art. My senior year in high school I lived in the art room. I painted, drew, did pottery, you name it.

The transition into getting my first tattoo and "expressing" my 18 year old self was pretty easy. I'll never forget sitting in LA Ink (a Laconia biker tattoo shop) and picking out my first tattoo. I had drawn an Alien face, but the artist told me it would need to be a LARGE tattoo in order to preserve all the details. Thank goodness he talked me out of it. So instead, I have a random gecko..??? ahh well, he's a happy little fella climbing up my calf.

I later got a sun tattoo on the top part of my arm. It has no meaning other than I liked it. During my second tattoo, (another tribal looking sun) I had them also put a swirl inside the 1st sun tattoo because everyone asked me if it was the Godsmack sun ugh.

My third tattoo was a tramp stamp if you will. It's on my lower back and its a Celtic knot work shamrock. My sister had gotten the same tattoo a few years prior and I fell in love with the design then. When I called her the day I had it done, she called me an asshole. Apparently she wasn't that pleased with the sentiment of sharing a sisterly tattoo haha ahh well, that's my sister for you.

My fourth tattoo was quite a long time later. This tattoo was something I put alot of thought into. And in fact, I designed it myself. I wanted it to look like a henna tattoo and it's on my foot. Everyone that sees it during the summer always complements me on the henna art. At which point I explain that its real. Its my favorite one... and someday I'll have another design done on my other foot.

The last tattoo I got was a cute little 50's pin-up inspired rubber ducky. My daughter loved rubber duckies as a child. Probably because I have always been into them and had collected quite a few to display in her room. We also decorated her room in a duck theme when she was an infant. She had no choice but to like them. Beneath the tattoo is her name. It resides on my flabby belly. To remind me why the belly is flabby and so that I will always be thankful for that flab, because with it, came the greatest love of my life. My daughter.