My tattoo journey

I'm passionate about tattoos. I love them, on me and on others. I started my collection at the age of 19, I can't remember how the decision was made but I went with my boyfriend at the time and picked a flash off the wall, a dragon looking over my shoulder. I was able to hide it at work and with my family (my parents lived about a 4 hour drive away at that time, and would not approve!) but I did show it off when I socialised. I got another dragon on my hip a few years later so again, it was easily hidden. I was nervous about showing them to some of my family and at work, although most people knew I had them. While my parents didn't approve (my mother was ok with my partner having tattoos but not me) they did know about them and it didn't affect our relationship. I was already the rebel of the family, and that role was just part of who we were. As a teenager I'd got my ears pierced first (prompting my mum and one sister to follow suit) so perhaps it wasn't completely unexpected!

After losing a child to miscarriage when I was around 27, I commemorated Chloe with a Native American mourning armband around my upper arm. I was definitely less self-conscious about showing my art and didn't hide it from my family. It was part of my healing process. At that time I was a wife with two little boys. After a fairly long hiatus (tattoos are expensive and I had 3 children to raise as a single parent) I continued my collection with a wrist band incorporating a peace symbol. I worked in a mental health service and wasn't the only inked worker. When I left that job at the age of 44, I celebrated with a bat-winged muse on the left hand side of my chest, then a complementary one on the right symbolising my love of writing.

Since then I've had my sternum (between the muses) covered with three owl babies and an egg to represent my children, my left forearm covered in blossoms and blue wrens depicting my parents and siblings, and a large portrait style piece of one of my rats on my inner right forearm symbolising my love of animals. My latest piece shows my Halloween-loving spooky side, with a graveyard, bats against a full moon, a looming gum tree and gravestones reading 'Chaos', 'Fear' and 'Hatred'.

My tattoo journey is definitely not over - I"m constantly planning and saving, even if it's just in the back of my mind. I'll know when the time is right. Women are becoming more heavily tattooed that they have in the past, and there seems to be less stigma attached - my own experience of reactions from strangers have usually been positive, and if they're not, I acknowledge and move on. My tattoos show my history, my life journey, not just in the content but in the context. People have asked how I'll feel about them when I'm old and wrinkly... they'll be old and wrinkly right along with me!