Getting a tattoo is a big commitment, so getting a tattoo that is meaningful and unique to you is the most important thing to consider when choosing what you want to get. The next big consideration is where are you going to get it? Somewhere visible? Somewhere hidden? Decisions. Decisions. Our writers all have tattoos that are unique to them that have their own stories behind them. Here are some of the stories behind those tattoos:
Olivia Wickline:
As for most people, I started my tattoo journey during my freshman year of college. I made an appointment and anxiously awaited for the needle to touch my skin – From that moment forward, I was hooked. Now, when people ask me how many tattoos I have I honestly can’t say. I do, however, have a couple of favorites:
My favorite tattoo is one that I got during a walk-in; I’ve actually gotten all my tattoos during a walk-in (after my first one). I was eating lunch with a friend when we both agreed we wanted to get tattoos. I didn’t have anything particular in mind, but my eyes were immediately drawn to the traditional panther that was on their specials board. I worked with the artist on the colorway and snuck in a filler tattoo underneath it (the tooth if you look closely). I constantly look at this tattoo when it’s peaking out in any way, and I love the way it brought the tattoos on my arm together. It’s also a traditional tattoo, so as it’s aged in the little time I’ve had it I love it even more as it sinks into the skin. I know I’ll love it forever.
It’s a more feminine version of a tattoo that my dad; I had been thinking about getting a panther for a while in his honor. I didn’t want the original rendition, so when I saw the panther with a flower I knew it was exactly what I wanted. I got her (my panther) done by Trisha Helsel at Atlas & Anchor Tattoo on East Carson Street in Pittsburgh. She usually has time for walk-ins, so if you’re feeling an impromptu tattoo, I’d highly recommend checking her and her shop out!
My other favorite tattoo is a sketch from Shel Silverstein’s A Light In the Attic. I loved poetry as a child, as I still do, and I had been wanting one of Silverstein’s drawings for a while. This is actually one of two tattoos I have that are based on poetry.
I had been trying to figure out which one of Silverstein’s sketches I wanted. When I lived in New York one of my favorite things was seeing people live their life through their lit apartments when it was dark outside. It felt like seeing into a piece of different people’s lives, and I loved thinking about how everyone has their own story. I got this tattoo at Fineline Tattoo in Manhattan as an ode to my time in the city and in honor of the stories I loved as a child. It’s a fun tattoo because people recognize the drawings, and I almost always have at least two people comment on it when my arms aren’t covered.
Ramsey Struble:
All of my life I wanted a tattoo and for my 18th birthday my mother said that I could get a tattoo. She also surprised me with the fact that she wanted to get the same tattoo as me. I am really close to my mom so I was so honored when she told me that she wanted to get a permit on her body to match me. I told her that I wanted to get something that symbolizes us together since I was leaving her for the first time as I was leaving for college. We got matching flower tattoos to symbolize that no matter where we go in life, we will always grow together.
Lauren Barr’s Tattoos:
I got my first tattoo 2 year ago. I knew when I got my first tattoo it was going to have to be something that was meaningful to me and something that I knew I would be satisfied with having 40+ years from now. My first tattoo was a semicolon, this tattoo is important to me because it signifies my sister and a similar tattoo she has with my mom’s handwriting of “stay” on her wrist. My other sister and I decided to get a semicolon on our right pinky as a promise to always stick together through the highs and lows in life.
After I got my first tattoo, I immediately fell into the “tattoo fever” trap. So, I began brainstorming ideas for what I wanted next. My sisters also fell into that trap, so we all decided to get something together that was unique. We wanted arrows but we didn’t want just basic arrows that anyone else could have if you passed them walking down the street, so we got arrows that were unique to us. We got zodiac arrows for each of us. The first one is my sister Sarah’s sign, which is the Sagittarius sign. The middle one is my sister Megan’s, which is Taurus, and the last one is mine, which is Leo.