Editor Rosalie shares her most romantic tattoo and speaks to other tattoo collectors about their tattoos inked in the name of love…
That’s right an initial, I got the first letter of my husband’s name tattooed on me. It’s not even his full name or a significant date that ties us intrinsically together. We’ve been a couple for over 11 years and we’ve already got matching tattoos, three to be exact – a hamster (our first pet together), maple leaves to mark our Canadian honeymoon, and watermelons (he has the whole minus a slice, and I have the slice).
So why did it take me so long to take the next step? I’m not even sure to be honest, definitely not a fear of commitment or the pain, or that age-old idea of tattoo regret. A lot of my tattoos have little meaning, and I feel as I go on getting more and more tattooed, the design and reasoning matters even less.
It’s not on my wedding finger, or prominently etched onto my arm, his little A sits on my leg in a little heart lock. Perhaps unnoticeable in the sea of tattoos that make up my body. The romantic in me, did it as a surprise, though (how sweet?).
Now I’ve joined the name tattoo club I wanted to hear from some other members:
Kath from Essex, got her husband’s name tattooed on her recently – “It’s a funny story, we got married in 2002 then divorced and then remarried in 2017. I only got the tattoo this year as this time it’s for keeps! He doesn’t have any tattoos and I got his name as a surprise, he’s quite chuffed with it!”
Paige from Newcastle and her fiancé Shay got matching tattoos after a couple of months together – “I’ve nearly been with Shay a year, but when I met him I just knew – you know? We got a lot of shit for our tattoos. My account has quite a few followers and one of them shared the tattoo on a tattoo shaming page on Facebook. The amount of grief we got, not just for the names but for the other tattoos we have, was ridiculous. It did upset me, what I put on my body is my business. If it’s not something they’d do, that’s their choice, this is mine.”
“We know we want to get some more, but just don’t know what, the strawberry was part of the match because we had a running joke about strawberry lube! But when something like that sticks out to us again we’ll probably get another matching one. I want one where we draw something for each other and get it tattooed, like, something little, like a frog or something!”
“I love my tattoos, I don’t see tattoos as a sacred thing, as you can tell! I have a lot of cover-ups too. It’s more of an experience to me, if a tattoo is shit it’s just another one. Like getting Shay’s name, it wasn’t a big deal – if we break up, I can just get it covered up, y’know? It’s only small. I can understand why people think it’s a big deal but it just doesn’t bother me.”
Chloe, tattoo artist from Leicester, got her husband’s nickname tattooed on her – “I got it just before we got married (September ‘17) while Jody was guesting with us. We were getting matching lemons as we were about to get married in Sicily, and I wanted a little something extra as a surprise for him. I wish there was a better story behind the nickname other than we just started calling each other it one day after watching Beavis and Butthead!”
Are you part of the lover tattoo gang? Let us know and show us your tattoos by tagging us on Instagram!
