At the beginning of July, I got a tattoo. I decided to get the tattoo to commemorate my 50th birthday.

It is on my left forearm. Loud, proud, and hard to miss. It often startles me. I can honestly say I loved it more on paper than I do on my body. It is pretty, it is classy (if a tattoo can be classy) and I do not exactly regret it (it is too late, even if I did). It is a design I picked, it is a design I approved, and I do like it.

I sort of wish I had gotten it in a less ‘obvious’ location.

My son also got a tattoo this summer; a chickadee sitting in a tree branch. A memorial piece to his late grandmother. At my suggestion, he got it on his left shoulder. He kind of regrets it, as no one can see it. He has the opposite problem. He wants it seen, I want mine unseen.

When I was a teenager, I desperately wanted a tattoo. A dagger with snakes and roses threaded up each side. I used to draw it on weekly with exact precision on my left inside ankle. I thank my stars I never had the money to actually get it done! I would feel some ridiculous now with a tattoo like that. *laughing* It was very ‘of its time’ and not reflective of the person I have become.

AI Generated image (of what it may have looked like)

The images I picked are specific to me. Pretty, simple, and somewhat timeless. They remind me of my garden, are simply my favourite flowers, and with my son’s initials worked into the design, it will always remind me of happier times.

But I still find it shocking to look down at my arm and see it there, in full colour. I suppose having had 49 years of looking at my bare arm and suddenly, my arm is no longer bare, it may take some time to get used to it! I’m not embarrassed by it, lots of people have tattoos. It won’t cost me a job or friendships (many of my friends have tattoos as well). While I’m the only sibling in my family to have a tattoo, they haven’t disowned me.

No, it is just different. And permanent. My son and I had been talking about getting a tattoo since he turned fifteen and asked me if he could get one. I said ‘no’ initially. But after his Grandmother passed away and he decided he wanted to get something to remember he by, my resistance melted, and I relented. Still, I wasn’t actually sure it would ever happen until I was sitting in our tattoo artists chair, and the first needles punctured my skin.

The sensation was odd. Like a bunch of little mosquito bites. Rapidly biting, thousands at a time. The colour yellow being the only one that really ‘hurt’! The rest just kind of itched. It took much longer than I anticipated (five hours) and was much more expensive than I had hoped.

It is beautiful. I get complimented on it often. People are surprised it is so bright and colourful. Evidently, people shy away from full colour tattoos because they require upkeep (touch-ups to the colour over the years). I do my best to keep it out of the sun (and use sunscreen and lotion on it) and cover it when I cannot.

The artistry is stunning. It really is a gorgeous piece. While there are talented artists, I do think my son and I lucked out finding Megan at Hidden Gem here in Edmonton. My kiddo did a search on Reddit, looking for an studio that would tattoo a kid under 18 (with parental consent). As these are lifelong commitments (rightfully) many studios are shying away from doing them on kids (good move). I supported my son’s decision as he’d been thinking of it for well over a year, picked something of deep meaning, and chose to do it in a place that may not impact future growth (should he decide to proceed with further tattoos. All concerns Megan understood, supported, and encouraged him to think about when we met her at the tattoo show in the spring.

The question arises: would you get more. In fact, the ink wasn’t dry when another artist and Megan were discussing how what I have could be turned into a sleeve. Say what! While I am not a sleeve girl, there is potential for something else, in a less obvious space. Line work, a saying… But not today (or this year, even). What I have is startling me less, it still looks good two months later, and the initial shock has worn off.

A big thank you to Megan at Hidden Gem Tattoos for answering all our strange questions, this Mama’s panicked midnight Insta DM about what ‘normal’ was regarding my son’s tattoo, and bestowing us with two really great pieces of art!

Thank you to Megan at Hidden Gem. Great, clean studio in Edmonton, Alberta Canada.

You can find Megan on Instagram: @tattoosbymeg.hel