Wolves, roses, and moons, baby! Ha! That’s the core of my ink and I thought I’d take a moment to formally explain why I ended u with both pieces. Both of which have a history for me. As tattoos go, you want the ink on your body to not just look right, but have meaning and depth.

The first piece was a tribute piece. Before Lover Mine passed away, we’d talked a lot about a variety of things and one thing kept standing out. I often said if I could have sent roses to her, I would have because there’s still a little romantic in me. (He’s buried mostly…) she commented that she loved the purple Ecuadorian rose because of its uniqueness – it’s very rare. Well, once we were talking and I’d mentioned getting that with my wolf tattoo once I’d figured out a design. I had a couple of core ideas but nothing really significant anyway, because I’m honestly not very visual.

Many of those occasions, she might have been drunk or not, I’ll never truly know. But she always seemed happy that I remembered something so minute as to that when I’d tell her I’d eventually get that ink. It always made her smile. We had this conversation multiple times.

When she passed away, I made the appointment with a local artist and I immediately loved the entire design. None of it is what I would consider full bloom or adult – my thinking was that Lover Mine died too early, thus the flower wasn’t developed to express it still growing. The wolf looks younger than my other one, because I was 41 (younger at the time) and even the Castlevania moon isn’t a full moon.

Even the placement of the tattoo on my body has significance though I’ll leave that alone. So, She got her piece and it was tied in with the heart for another who is very much alive and a large part of my life to this day. But I believe Lover Mine would have felt honored to have seen this tattoo. I even cried because some asshole played an old Wham song I could associate with loss. But #OwnHerHeart, I remembered.

The second tattoo I can be more frank about. I used to be a cutter (no shock there, right?). I was specific about how and where because that arm I broke when I was in my early 20s, so it to me, was damaged. The why was the easy one. I wanted to feel something for once other than emptiness and pain.

I never left permanent marks but honestly? I didn’t want to resume that habit again, after promising a loved one I wouldn’t so…years back the idea came to place a beautiful blue rose over the space where I used to cut.

Once I had some extra funds, I found another local artist, as my original one had left Georgia, and we sat down and talked. When I started talking to him about the significance of this piece, all these things came to mind. The colors, red now added because of my passion, to go with the blue of my loyalty. A wolf now, because well, wolves. The triple goddess for protection and a reminder of my love of the Moon and many things lunar. And the mystery of the night sky, because I have almost exclusively written most of my work at night up until a few years ago.

The rose and wolf would be in full bloom. I’m older. I’ve learned. I’ve grown and still will grow more. The wolf, a light and dark mix, because I am both a white wolf (ugh Sweet Witch no!) and a dark wolf. Hence, silver which cannot be done in ink. Oh, the green eye is my tribute to Les, from the Opeth pack saga. I wanted this to be a significant piece and even though I couldn’t imagine it taking up the space it does on my forearm, im in love with both pieces. This piece served as a reminder that I am not broken

I may get a third piece of art, I’m not sure. Tattoos are things that require a great deal of thought before placing permanent ink on one’s body. it dawned on me, none of my characters, except maybe Sonja from The Bodyguard has any ink that I’m aware of She’s of course a death metal singer and a witch, so maybe sigils?

Do you have ink?