new ink.

I have always been the type of person to want tattoos, even from a young age. I used to doodle what I would want in the margins of my homework in high school and dream about the day I would turn 18 so I could get one. It turns out I waited until I was 19, but I've been hooked since the first one, and will probably continue to have the tattoo fever for a long time.

This weekend I got my fifth tattoo with my two best friends, Alyssa + Meagan. We have been talking about our "next ones" for a while, and decided that this weekend that we were going to spend together would be the perfect time. Every time I've gotten a tattoo I've been with either one of them, and never have I gotten one alone, so between us we share quite a few (including a matching one on our inner foot that says "forever", which was all of our firsts).

We went to Leathernecks Tattoo in Brooklyn, which is the first place I've gotten one that I feel like I definitely want to go back to. It was super clean, the guys that worked there were all funny and completely nonjudgmental (which is something that has bothered me about places we have been before), and I felt comfortable with my artist right away. Because we were all getting something simple, we were in and out on a Saturday afternoon (without appointments!) in just under an hour and a half. So if you're anywhere near Brooklyn, I'd highly recommend this place to you, though I've never tried anywhere else in BK. I just had a really good experience.I have a million tattoo ideas and concepts, a lot of which are on my Pinterest ink board, and the idea of an anchor has been in my head for a while. I don't do anything involving the sea, nor do I belong to Delta Gamma (though I am guilty of posing in their manner for a picture or two here or there), I just love the idea behind an anchor. It's strong and stable, and through rough seas keeps a boat where it needs to be. Especially at this juncture in my life where I feel like I'm trying to pull into adulthood on my own, I want to remain the strong person that I've always been. It's not that I need a reminder to be strong (though it doesn't hurt), I just take a lot of pride in my ability to stay strong no matter how rough things get. And though it's so fresh and sharpie looking right now, I know that it will be there on my skin forever to remind me of why I am who I am and what has happened to get me there.

*see more about another one of my tattoos here.

ink.

Soooooo I posted about going to AC, and while there I got a new tattoo.

I guess for a little bit of backstory on what it is and how it all came about starts back in 2003. My grandfather passed away that June, and it was my first real loss. I grew up staying at my grandparent's house in the summertime, would sleep there a lot on weekends, and always brought friends there with me for sleepovers and to use their huge pool. Both of my grandparents played a giant part in my childhood, and I am still so blessed to have my grandma in my life today.

My nonno, which means grandfather in Italian, was my best friend. It sounds so typical and cliche, but he was. I'm an only child, so those summers spent at my grandparent's house were what I had. I didn't have an older brother to teach me how to ride a bike, or a little sister to play dress-up with; I had a nonno who taught me how to swim, and shared his love of dogs with me. I have cousins, and they contributed to my childhood in rich ways as well, filling some of the void that my lack of siblings left, but my nonno and nonna are with whom I have some of my most vivid memories with as a child.

me and nonno, and my nonna with my younger cousins, circa 1993

When nonno passed away after a long battle with cancer, I took it really hard. Even though I was only thirteen, I always knew I wanted a tattoo, and I assumed that when I turned eighteen, that a tattoo for him would be my first. It wasn't. I got a tattoo with my best friend when we were nineteen, and then I got one on my grandfather's birthday when I was twenty, in Italian, but not exactly for him. Then when I was twenty-one I got a third tattoo, but I was still not sure of what I wanted for my grandpa. Then, on the way to Atlantic City, I was talking to my friend Meagan about what I think I finally wanted for him, roman numerals of the date he died. Simple, like he was. That's when I realized that I would be in AC on June 13, the tenth anniversary of his death. Perfect, right?

So I took the plunge and decided to go to a small tattoo place on the 13th, and get VI XIII on my wrist for him. I originally had wanted it in white, because all of the pictures I saw on google and on tattoo sites looked awesome. It looks more like a scar than a tattoo. But, the artist at the parlor said that white fades to yellow, and when you get tan (which I thankfully do very easily) it gets weird when you return to your translucent state again in October. So, I went with black. I didn't think I would ever want a black tattoo on my wrist, or in any other place that it's really noticeable, but I went for it. I want to see it every day. My rib tattoo and back of the hip tattoos are only seen in the summer, and my foot tattoo is more noticeable but covered half the year. So I figured I could afford to do something a little more noticeable that can easily be covered by a watch or a bracelet once it's healed.

So that's that. I'm happy I did it when I did it, and I'm happy that the last year and a half of planning to get a new tattoo since my last one ended up fulfilling my plan to get one for nonno for the last ten years.