My Tattoo Stories. Part One.

So, it’s the beginning of the, “Oh my God, I love your tattoos! What do they mean?!”, season for me. You know, the seasons where I start showing more skin, thus showing more of my tattoos. And the first day I wear anything sleeveless is the first tattoo compliment day. Mark my words.

And I get it. Many people want to know if they have any significance, which all of mine do, but I usually don’t have the time to tell them about ALL of them. So I decided that I would take certain ones and showcase them in “tattoo stories” if you will. And I’m a writer (and an introvert), and I’d rather write about my tattoos than talk about them. 

We’re starting with the sunflowers. I love sunflowers, and I love the meaning and symbolism behind them (warmth, happiness, longevity, adoration). They just make me happy when I look at them. Like giddy, kid-like happiness. And I saw a random picture of a rainbow sunflower (probably super Photoshopped, but that’s beside the point...), and thought that it might make a really cool tattoo. 

This was also the beginning of my tattoo artist and I’s working relationship, so we were still figuring out each other’s vibe, etc... And I will never forget the look on his face when he asked me what colors I wanted on my sunflower, and I said, “All of them.” He gave me this quizzical look, like “did you really mean ALL of them?” And I just laughed, and went, “I know what I said.” I should have taken a picture of the inks lined up because they were so pretty and happy! Another artist came over to see it during the process, and he referred to it as, “The Sunflower Gone Candyland”. And I’m not mad at that description because he pretty much took the words out of my mouth. It’s still something that I look down at and smile, and it’s been on me for seven years now.

The black and grey realistic one has a little deeper story. About 10 years ago, I took a trip up to Estes Park, and it was right after a huge fire burned down a historical mall up there. It was devastating and one of the worst fires they experienced.  They put up a makeshift walkway after they cleared out all of the debris, and as I wandered through, I looked through the chain link fence, and saw this single sunflower. It was blooming out of the debris, like a beacon of hope for the city, and I became obsessed with it. I must have stood there for an hour taking pictures of it. Because it was such an amazing thing to witness, especially in the wake of such a tragedy. 

Last year, I was trying to think of something for one of my other artists to tattoo on me. And this picture came up in Timehop or Facebook Memories. And I thought, who said I can’t have two sunflowers on my body? And my other artist thought it would be a good idea to do it as more as a realism piece, instead of color. And I totally agreed. It’s like having a picture of it on my skin, and I love how it came out. 

So, this is part one of my tattoo stories. I hope you like hearing about them, and I will continue to post more in the coming weeks. All of my tattoos have a story, and maybe now, I can just hand people a business card and say, “Go read my blog!”

Done by Freddie Arroyo at Sworn Oath Tattoo in Arvada, CO.

Done by Sherley Escribano at Preying Mantis - Kipling in Lakewood, CO.