In April when we were in Los Angeles, I started to think about another tattoo. So much was changing, and I felt a little lost. I had had to leave behind my life in Bend: friends, church, family, dogs, belongings.
I felt displaced and sometimes those feelings got the best of me. My sister and I started talking about getting leaves to symbolize turning over a new leaf but for some reason none of the leaves I found ever connected for me. I kept coming back to trees. At the end of the day, I realized I had way more than one new leaf to turn over.
I am extremely happy with the way it turned out. Broken art tattoo was a fun shop, and John Engfors (a guest tattoo artist from Sweden) did a wonderful job. My favorite part was just before he started when he asked me if I was "ready for the pain" and my response was something about having given birth without drugs after 23 hours of labor...:)
The design is meant to symbolize the fact that roots can actually be wherever you are. Growth happens if you let it. I have other ideas for this tattoo in the future that I'm excited about. But for now it has taught Cameron the word "tree" and it makes me happy every time I see it (which is quite often as it is on my arm...). Happy little tree.