Lately I have really, really been wanting more tattoos, so it reminded me that I only told you the story about my 1st one. As it has been with all of my tattoos, this one was a little spur of the moment, but it is definitely the most meaningful one that I have and will ever get. Ever since I got my first tattoo, I had been thinking of ideas for what else I would possibly get done and one thing that I definitely decided on getting someday was Martin's paw print. Call me a crazy cat lady... I totally am... BUT my reasoning behind wanting it is sentimental. I got Martin when I was 20 and he has been my sweet little kitty and has been by my side through all of the toughest moments of my life. I know they say that dogs are such loyal companions, but Martin has been such a blessing to me and is a total mama's boy.
I figured that if I wanted a tattoo of Martin's paw, I better get an ink pad and try to wrangle a print from him. The ink pad that I bought was sitting out on my kitchen table the Monday that dad passed. When my friend, Lindsay, drove me home to get stuff to stay overnight at my mom's, something made me grab the ink pad and bring it with me. The next day, as I was sitting in my dad's recliner that he loved to nap in, it came to me that I wanted to get his hand or finger print tattooed on me. When my brother came over, I told him about the idea and he said he would do it too, and that we should do a fingerprint. Then Jess came over and she liked the idea as well so we took the ink pad and paper with us to the funeral home. After we planned the service and wrote the obituary, they let us see dad. I can't really talk about that at this point because it is still so emotional for me to think about and such a vivid memory for me, so maybe I can talk about it in more detail some other time, but Jess and I were able to get some good prints of dad's thumb.
Greg lives in Philly, so he went back home after we planned the memorial service, but Jess got in touch with her friend Frankie and he said he would be honored to do the tattoos for us. I have to give Jess credit here because the additional detail of the tattoo was her idea. We both have little notes from dad that he would write for us every once and a while and put in our cars or bookbags. I have a note from him that says "Have a good day, Jer. Love, Dad" and Jess had a note from him telling her to have a good first day at Warwick. She thought it would be cool if we had the "Love, Dad" from the notes he wrote us tattooed under the thumb print. So while our tattoos are the "same" they are different because my "Love, Dad" is from the note he wrote to me and hers is from the note he wrote to her.
We picked our right forearms for the tattoos. I went first and I decided I wanted the tattoo to face in towards me, even though aesthetically, you should get the tattoo facing out. I figured the tattoo is for me, so I want to be able to look at it and have it right side up. Jess went with hers the other way around, and since Greg couldn't make it up that night, he ended up getting his later on his right bicep. The finished result is amazing and I get compliments on it all the time. I love it 💖💕
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