I got tattooed by another mom!

On getting my Tay-too

The stay-at-home mom life has mostly been, to put it gently, not for me. Many days, I feel like I had far more freedom, patience and sanity when I was working full time.

But there are also odd perks I like to take advantage of, like being able to get a tattoo on a Monday afternoon while my mom watched the kids.

I’ve had fun experiences with all of my tattoos (this is my third). I got the cupcake on my hip the day some guy in Orlando broke up with me and my roommate and I thought we should do something to get my mind off it. (It worked, and I love my cupcake.) The quote on my right arm was part of a tattoo I got with Kyle, and we happened to be the last appointments ever at this shop in downtown Phoenix that was closing up that night.

And this experience with my Tay-too (Taylor Swift tattoo!), was also unique and meaningful. I went to Neon Bloom Ink - a private studio run by another stay-at-home mom who started learning to do tattoos once her kids were in school.

I knew I wanted to get something to represent my Swiftie-hood back in 2023, after seeing the incredible Eras Tour. My favorite song is “Out of the Woods,” and I decided on a couple woodsy trees with two paper airplanes to symbolize those lyrics. It was a four-month waitlist at the tattoo studio Kyle goes to, so I made an appointment even though we were trying to get pregnant again. I thought, we’ll see which one happens first.

Two weeks before my appointment, two pink lines told me it would be a while before I got my Tay-too.

Nine months of pregnancy plus one year of breastfeeding - and here we are. I’ve had plenty of days since to live out the meaning of the tattoo each day.

Before, I thought Kyle and I were the paper airplanes - freely exploring and hiking in nature like we always used to do.

But now it’s obvious. We’re the trees (we’re not freely doing anything!) and the kids are the airplanes flying in circles around us while we try to ground them and lift them at the same time.

These early parenting years feel insanely hard, one challenging phase after another. Are we out of the woods yet? Are we in the clear yet? Are we? Are we? Are we?!?!!

I know each stage of raising kids comes with its own set of challenges, but I hope one day to look at this tattoo and remember how we got through these years when it felt impossible. Hopefully it will help me stay strong through the eyerolls and the I-hate-you’s of then teen years.

Ashley McPheron captured my design idea far better than I had dreamed it up, and I love that another mom was the person to permanently sketch this timestamp onto my skin. Along with the meaning of the design, the experience will always inspire me that there’s moret to me than being a mom and it’s okay to - encouraged to - express those parts of me. Thanks, Ashley, for your work and reminding me how cool it is to lean into your own interests and dreams. Nothing is off limits.