This is my first time participating in Aaron’s Sunday Scribblings, but I figured it was fitting since I do have a tattoo!

Last summer, we unexpectedly had to put down our Golden Retriever Sadie Mae and it was devastating for us, especially my mom. Shortly after it happened, she was like, “I’m going to get a tattoo of Sadie’s name” and it took me just one night to talk myself into getting one with her, too. I got the name of a local tattoo place from a friend, and my mom called the next day to schedule our appointment. (The one year anniversary was just a few days ago on July 15.)

I found a paw print design on Pinterest that I really liked, and my mom knew she wanted to get Sadie’s name, while I opted for just the paw print. My mom went first and asked the artist all of the typical mom questions, like “How did you know you wanted to do this?” and “How do you get started as a tattoo artist?” The artist was really nice since these were our first tattoos, and they were pretty simple, just black line work with a little bit of color.

Mine took about 15-20 minutes, and it did hurt but I knew it was small and I just sucked it up. The three of us were talking the whole time so it was a bit of a distraction for me from what was actually going on. I got a pink heart because Sadie always had a pink collar, and my mom got her heart in red for love.

To be honest, sometimes I forget it’s on my wrist; I noticed it happened a lot during the winter when I was wearing long sleeves and then I’d be like, oh yeah I have a tattoo. I’ve only had a few people notice it—most of my friends knew I was getting it when I did—and ask about it. I never thought I’d get a tattoo, but I’m really glad I got this one and that I was able to get it with my mom.

I’m not sure if I’ll get another one anytime soon, but I’d like to think I will. Nothing too big; I think I like the look of more simple tattoos. I’ve always kind of wanted to get “Love Mom and Dad” in my mom’s handwriting, so maybe that’ll be next. Who knows, I’m not in any rush, and anyway, my first one was a bit spur of the moment.