Catmom is a woman in her mid-50s from Alberta. She has always had pets throughout her life and has loved them all. However, she shares, “Every now and then you have a pet that is a part of you. A ‘heart’ pet if you will.” For Catmom this was Charlie, a “small, orange fuzzball of a kitten – cuddly and playful.” They got Charlie when he was 7 weeks old and her kids were just starting school. Charlie helped her fill the extra time in her days. “Soon he owned a piece of [her] heart and she owned his.” They belonged to one another, while other pets were considered family pets. Unfortunately, Charlie was diagnosed with diabetes a few years later and was gone within weeks. Shortly after he passed, Catmom lost her grandmother. She was struggling with grief and the motions of everyday living when “it hit [her] that [she] needed a tattoo.”
Catmom had the idea for the flowers and the actual paw print, and her tattoo artist put it together on pen and paper into a beautiful design. Her tattoo includes “orange tiger lilies and Charlie’s paw print, and then some crocus flowers for [her] grandmother. [She] added the pink dogwood flowers in honour of [her] paternal grandmother as well.”
STORIES FROM THE SKIN 