Psychexero

My 6th tattoo was not my idea, my art, and it was done on the spur of the moment.  But it holds a near and dear place in my heart.

My mom draws, and she's a fantastic artist.  Normally she draws these AMAZING trees, but sometimes she draws other little things.  She was in Austin visiting me near my birthday and she had a dream that involved this symbol.  She she woke up, she sketched it out, but kept it to herself.  That afternoon, we were bopping out the SoCo district (South Congress area here in Austin, very hipster/eclectic fun little place) and stopped to have coffee.  She pulls out her drawing pad and shows me this drawing and says, "I've been thinking about getting this tattooed all day, what do you think?"  I looked at it and looked at her, sort of in shock.

Now, my mom doesn't LOVE tattoos, but she understands when people get them.  At this point she now has two.  The first one she got was a dragonfly on the outside of her ankle.  She got it with her best friend on a "girl's weekend" just before her friend started treatment for breast cancer.  It's very special to her, and it took her nearly 40 years before she even considered getting one.  And there she was, sipping coffee, casually mentioning getting another.  So I made a smart ass remark, "Well sure, but only if we all get matching ones."  She just looked at me and replied, "Well then I get to pick the place and the size, and we all have to get the same tattoo in the same place."  I agreed with her plan, she called my sister (who was back in New Mexico), we all agreed on a spot, and we were set.  Across the street was a tattoo parlour, so we wandered in, told the guys what we wanted, they drew up 3 stencils for us (1 for mom to take home to my sister) and into the chair we went.

Now, this tattoo happened when I was having the WORST allergies in the world, and I could not breathe through my nose to save my life.  The tattoo is on the very upper aspect of the left side of my chest, and trying to hold still and not drip snot everywhere while the artist colored on me was interesting to say the least.  But in the end, we were all happy with them, and as stupid as it sounds, I feel like my bond with my mom and sister is that much closer.  We share something no one else will, and it's unique to our little trio.