Emily and her son Aaron, whose toddler handprints provided the template for her “wings” tattoo. Click through the jump to check out what Emily had to say when we interviewed her about it!
How did you decide on the design?
I liked the idea of getting my ‘wings’ … kind of demarcating my
journey into motherhood – but i felt the wing tattoo was pretty played
out. Searching through internet tattoos, i saw a lot of baby foot
tattoos of childrens’ footprints from birth certificates, and the idea
just hit me like a frying pan to the face, to do his hand prints, but
with the thumbs upright so that the fingers fanned out.
How old was Aaron when he did the handprints?
Getting him to do this for me was a whole different story, I made a
few attempts at getting him to give me hand prints, but babies often
ball their hands into little fists so getting him to give me a hand
print was pretty challenging. Once I got him to do it, he was a little
older than 2, and so his hands had gotten pretty big at that point, I
didn’t realize how far they would span across my back, but I was
determined to have them as-is. I didn’t want to ruin the integrity, i
wanted the tattoo to be identical to the prints that we’d made, and
they’re pretty close! I couldn’t be happier with them, really. Getting
them done was an amazing and surprising experience, my back is quite
sensitive and ticklish and I couldn’t stop laughing for a lot of the
work.
Who was your artist?
My artist was a girl named Kelly, who was at the time working at
Stainless Studios for Thomas Brazda. I’d gotten a lot of piercings
there, and had a friend who worked the counter, so I was comfortable
with the people at the shop. I checked out Kelly’s work before I
settled on it and she had done some really gorgeous black-and-white
work that was pretty spot-on, and I felt that was important to me,
that the tattoo look as close as possible to what I’d supplied the
artist.
Do you have plans to add to this as he grows?
I’m not really sure if i plan to add to the tattoo in the future.
People have often asked me ‘what happens if you have more children?’
but I am happy in the moment.
What does Aaron think of it?
Aaron likes the tattoo, he knows they’re his hand prints and sometimes
he likes to put his hands over them to see how much he’s grown.
How do strangers respond to it?
During the summer when it’s most visible I often get compliments on
it. A few people, especially when it was fresh, have tapped me on the
shoulder to tell me ‘You’ve got paint on your back!’ Like I didn’t
know. When I explain it’s a tattoo, sometimes there is an
uncomfortable laugh or smile and sometimes it’s not so positive, but
you can’t please everyone. I won’t pretend I could try. The majority
of comments have been positive, though.
