After more than a year, going faithfully every month to see Brandon Hanna my backpiece is finished. My half sleeve/chest panel represents protecting my kids. My daughters represented by the sun and moon. My mother's husband always called them "Sunshine" (Ashlee) and "Moonshine" (Kelsey), and my son Wyatt represented by St Basil's Cathedral because we adopted him from Russia. Since Wyatt is more prominently displayed on my chest and the girls would be leaving home soon, Brandon and I came up with the idea of showing the struggles the girls would have as they went out into the "real world." I wanted an army of bad guys, Brandon thought an "evil spider" would be better. We compromised and had the girls fighting the "evil octopus."
We started talking about this tattoo when the girls were 18 and 19. We took photos of them holding swords to get the physiology right on the piece. Then, there was the question that you have to ask them..."How big do you want your boobs to be?" The question HAS to be asked. I called them each individually. I called Ashlee first, her respons, "bigger than Kelsey's." Ooook. I called Kelsey, "Well, what did Ashlee say? I'll say 'big' but not porn star 'big'." Alrighty then. I asked for it.
This year my girls will turn 21 and 22. Ashlee is getting married in June and Kelsey will graduate with a degree in biology next year and hopes to get into PA school. They have a long way to go, but they are doing better against the "evil octopus" than I did at their age.
As for my next tattoo. I have no ideas for the first time in years. I like being tattooed, but I really don't enjoy getting tattoed. I'll wait a few years before I do anything else.
