This month, our inked: submissions have the common theme of family. Family means so many different things to different people: support, love, and strength to name a few. Its easy to get annoyed with family over the holiday season- it is a high stress, high expectation time of year that sometimes bubbles over into exasperation. I urge you to keep your cool this season, whether it is the family you were born with, the family you married into, or the family you choose.

First up, is Anita, who experienced a series of unfortunate life events over a short period of time. She credits her family with keeping her sane during a period of turmoil. The shared experiences made her family stronger. Her tattoo of four stars represents each member of her family. Its a daily reminder of their closeness, strength and their unbreakable bond.

Over the past two year, Lisa lost both her parents, and her daughters lost two of their three living grandparents. Lisa’s dragonfly tattoo on her foot was designed by one of her daughters, and is a symbol of transformation, happiness and self-realization: sentiments that are particularly relevant to Lisa now that her parents are gone. Lisa’s daughter has a tattoo in her grandmother’s handwriting, taken from a love letter from her grandmother to her grandfather.

Christina’s wrist bears the phrase “love you more” in her grandmother’s handwriting. Christina and her grandmother have a tradition where they play-argue about who loves the other more every time they speak on the phone. Christina’s grandmother has seen her tattoo and approves of its design and meaning!

Lara’s tattoo is located above her elbow and is in Cyrillic. It says “Do Svidaniya” which is goodbye, or till we meet again in Russian. Lara’s grandma would say this to each of her grandchildren as they’d leave from a visit or on the phone. Lara’s grandmother passed away last year, and this tattoo is in memory of her. 

I hope you have a happy and healthy holiday season with the people you love. If you’d like to be featured on a future series of inked: please email your tattoo story and a picture to [email protected]. For more inked, check out series ONE, TWO and THREE.