That Tat

I wrote this blog for a site called myttoos.com. It is about my experience getting a memorial tattoo. The blog is no longer on the site. 

Have you ever walked past someone before and caught a glimpse of their tattoo? It was a quick look. What did it say? What is it? You really want to read it, examine it closely, and determine what exactly made that person get that tattoo.  But it might be rude to stare. You may not have the time to ask why that ink. But the brief image you get of that tattoo may follow you until you can figure it out.

Anywhere you go there is a good chance you’re going to see someone with ink. Everybody’s doing it. Men, women, old, young, conservative, liberal, you name it -- they might have ink.

But, why? Why do people get the tattoos that they get? Are they flash, custom, unique or one of a kind? Is it a severe case of ‘ooh! I want that one’? Or is it a tattoo that is meaningful and straight from the heart? If you have ever asked yourself, or anyone else, any of those questions, than this is the blog for you. ‘That Tat’ is going to explore the reasons why people get the ink that they get. You never know what kind of story is behind the rose on someone’s breast or the squid-man on someone’s arm.

I’m going to start with my story. I’ve got five tattoos. My most recent was done at Oddity Tattoo Studio in Sarasota, Florida. Matt Helmer, an alumnus of Ringling School of Art and Design, was finishing up his apprenticeship at the shop. He needed a few more pieces to become an artist.  When I heard he was looking for work I decided to send him my idea.

I’d like a zombie cat please. Whoa, hold on, this girl wants a zombie cat tattooed on her back? Why? Well, for starters, Matt’s zombie work is out of this world. I’ve seen several of the other pieces that he did, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get my own, original, Matt Helmer tattoo. We batted around a few ideas and several sketches. But on the day of my appointment, I walked into Oddity, and Matt showed me his sketch. It was a cartoon drawing of my cat.

Why would you get a tattoo of your cat? Well, I rescued Miss Kitters from a group of boys who didn’t know how to handle a female cat. She was full of worms and un-fixed when I got her. She needed lots of tender loving care. She was psycho. So after three years of caring for her and transforming her personality, her untimely January death hit me like a falling piano.  She was the first pet I’d lost in adulthood. Miss Kitters had outlived her nine lives.

A week later my grandmother died. She was the first grandparent I’d ever lost. Her expected death also hit me hard. I’m still affected by it today.

I wanted to memorialize my grandmother in ink. She was the person who taught me to read. Mom didn’t like the idea. When your mother tells you that she doesn’t want you to do something and she cries, you don’t do it. I went through months of missing my grandmother and Miss Kitters. That’s why I decided to tattoo the cat on my back. Even though the correlation between my cat and my grandmother isn’t clear to everyone, it gave me peace. It gave me relief.  To me this tattoo is a way to save the memories. I’ll always have them with me. They changed my life.