Inspiration

Heartfelt thanks go out to one of my oldest and dearest friends who has known me since the ripe age of 15 years for providing me with the motivation to carry out what I did last weekend. Graf, I hope you're proud of me. Those of you reading this blog who know my DJ friend also may know he has one tattoo on the inside of each ankle dedicated to both of his daughters. It is with this very concept in mind I say - ladies and gents, you are looking at my newest and proudest piece of body artwork - the Miles tattoo. (This was taken the morning after. It's not red at all now and mostly healed.)

When I was pregnant I had a special song I used to sing to my baby and it was Cherish by Madonna. Granted, the lyrics are more romantic in nature but the chorus is what has always stood out to me: "Give me faith, give me joy. My boy, I will always cherish you." I have considered tattooing the word "Cherish" underneath Miles' name and birthdate ever since my first trimester but hesitated after meeting my artist at No Regrets Studio on Madison. I discovered that the lettering I wanted would take up slightly more room than I had previously anticipated so decided to wait and give the idea a bit more thought before being stuck with it for the rest of my life. Other than this slight angst I am very pleased at the rate this new ink is healing and am quite excited over my gumption to get the job done. It has been more than 10 years since my last tat and I wasn't sure I could muster the courage of a repeat performance. However, I sat tight with my Dr Pepper for the brief 10 minutes of work and chatted with my artist to distract myself from the irritating sting of the process.

This is my fourth, but not final, piece and it is located on my inner left ankle just about an inch above my anklebone. It makes me smile every time I look down to check on the healing progress and my hope is that someday my son will think this decision at least remotely "cool". If not I will, for lack of a better word, cherish this commemoration of his birth until the day my spirit no longer inhabits this planet.