My topic for today’s Blogging A to Z challenge is ink! We’re talking tattoos here, not Bics!

I got my first tattoo when I was 30 years old. I wanted it to prove I was some old lady, that I was still young and cool. I was super nervous about the pain. I remember asking my tattoo artist how bad it was going to hurt. He replied by asking, “How many people do you see with more than one tattoo?”

I answered, “Lots.”

He said, “So how bad could it hurt if people get more than one?’

Good point.

So my first tattoo was on the inside of my left leg just above my ankle — a small strawberry. I wanted something small in case it wasn’t well received at work. Nobody batted an eye and it was then that I began my love affair with tattoos.

I currently have a dozen of them and want lots more. It’s not the pain that keeps me from getting them — it’s the cost. Sure, I could get tattoos for a cheap price but in the world of ink, you definitely get what you pay for. I am willing to pay a higher price for a quality job by an experienced artist.

Some of my tattoos are just for decoration, but some of them have meaning. I am now to the point that when I get a tattoo, I want it to mean something; I don’t want to just ink my body for the sake of it.

So I’ll start at the feet and work my way up:

The one that started it all!

I already talked about my strawberry.

My parrot.

On my upper left thigh, I have a parrot. This is my nod to being a Parrothead.

My ankle bracelet.

Around my right ankle, I have a bracelet, just some black line work with a pink flower on the outside of the ankle.

The tramp stamp that I really need to have re-touched….

I’ve got a tramp stamp of flowers. This was my most painful tattoo. When I got it, I lost some of the ink because the waistband of my jeans irritated the fresh tattoo. I once inquired about getting it touched up but that would require having the whole thing retouched and I’m not sure I want to go through that pain for a tattoo that only gets seen by my husband.

My daughter’s name in Hebrew.

On my inside left wrist, I have my daughter’s name written in Hebrew. It is my favorite tattoo.

Here you can see the daisy I’m just not fond of anymore.

On my upper left arm I have what is supposed to be a daisy but it looks more like a sunflower. My daughter was born in April and the daisy is the flower for April so that’s why I got it. I don’t really like it because, like I said, it looks like a sunflower. Plus the artist sneaked in a little smiley face in the middle of the flower and it looks stupid. That was the last time I went to that shop, BTW.

For my husband. If we ever divorce, I’ll just color it in black 🙂

On top of my left ring finger is a small green heart. It is usually hidden by my wedding rings. This is for my husband, whose favorite color is green.

The bracelet of roses for me and my mommy.

Around my right wrist is a bracelet of pink and yellow roses. Pink roses are my favorite flower; yellow roses are my mom’s favorite flower.

The family tattoo — mine is the one on the bottom in red.

On the inside of my right forearm is a red puzzle piece. I call this a family tattoo because some of my other relatives have similar tattoos. We all have it on the inside of our forearm. It has sometimes been joking referred to ask our “Dark Mark” (Harry Potter joke).

Across my shoulder blades is the first line from the Prayer of St. Francis. This is my favorite prayer.

Above that on the back of my neck is a cross. This tattoo hurt the least of all my tattoos. In fact, here’s a little secret: the back of my neck is quite an erogenous zone for me, so getting that tattoo was actually kind of a turn on 😉

A nice view of my cross, prayer, and numeral.

Finally, behind my right ear is a small numeral 3. I enjoy telling people it is because I have three people in my family.

Plenty more tattoo ideas in the works — things like a tattoo for my dad, something in support of my cousin who is gay, the Apple logo, something in Hindi to commemorate my visiting India, something Blackhawks related. The ideas are almost endless — it all depends on how much money I’ve got and how much skin I’ve got 🙂