Hair and Ink: Change and Forever



Current hair style!  37 days worth of growth since shaving.

 Some things in life change quickly and other things don't change at all.  Throughout my life I have changed my hair so many times I actually wasn't even sure what my natural hair color is.  (Today I know, which is actually darker than I imagined)  I never wanted my hair to stay the same for too long.  Since this brain abscess ordeal began, I have had the privilege to change my hair pretty frequently again.  (Always trying to find the positive).  Strangely enough I even got to cross off a "bucket list" item.  #21.  Shave my head once.  I didn't even know there were names for some of my styles....

The Skrillex!

The mohawk!

The reverse mohawk!  (This is R's favorite)

The Sinead O'Connor!

Well, overall my body and my hair has been through quite the ordeal.

There has been one form of physical comfort.  My body art.  I love tattoos.  I have to say too, that through out this ordeal, my tattoos have been a huge form of therapy.  I tried to explain this to my father, but I don't think we will ever see eye to eye this topic.  Each one of my tattoos have a deep meaning for me and each one helped me get through some terrifying moment in the hospital.  When the doctors talked about needing to do more surgery because of serious swelling and they needed to life flight us to Denver Swedish Medical Center within the hour, I started to freak out a bit.  I rubbed the tattoo on the back of my neck and talked to my friend Michelle.  She passed away last summer and I told her I loved and missed her, but I was not ready to come be with her in Heaven yet.  I asked her to send me extra angels for the flight and next hospital trip.

Thanks for the angels Michelle.

Many days I sat in the bed hooked up to numerous machines and looked at my foot tattoo.  I thought about how the dragonfly symbolized the crazy helicopter crash Dave survived a few years.  I remembered what a trying time that was in our life and how our family  pulled through and came out stronger than ever.  Each star represents a person in our SCRWD family.  I felt a little closer to each of them at that moment and a bit stronger.  Every day I would flip my wrist over and remind myself again...Patience!!  It will take a lot of it!!!!


I love you Dave.  You are my rock and my forever.




Never enough of this!

Doctors and nurses commented on the tattoo work I have and each time I felt a little more like myself.  In a time when I felt like my body and my brain and my mind where all ganging up against me, my tattoo work was the one thing I could always count on being the same the next day (beside my awesome Dave).  I felt such a comfort with that.  When S was little she would get scared and we would spend hours singing songs from "The Sound of Music".  When she would call or text me and I would beging to hum the words and feel a little more at ease myself. 

Raindrops on roses for my special oldest daughter.

D is quite the artist and one of his highschool art projects lead to a COPE tattoo that I use to keep my own self going today.  The flowers symbolize the need to cope.  Without coping skills, the flower dies.  This  tattoo, besides being drawn by my son, helped me remember to cope with things and stay positive.  To balance out my back, I have my bamboo tattoo.  Bamboo is sooooo strong.  It can bend and bend and bend and never break.  That was the attitude I kept trying to keep during this ordeal and am still trying to keep.  I can bend and bend, but I refuse to break!

Cope and Live, thanks D.



You can bend me, but you can not break me!

 My marriage to Dave has been a fantastic adventure and I have loved every minute of it.  I sat in my hospital bed so amazed by his strength.  Dave and I designed our wedding tattoo together and it is a powerful piece that reminds me of our love and dedication to each other and our family.  Together we will get through this "adventure" and we will come out stronger! 

2-14-04 Vegas Forever.

I know there are many people in this world that have some negative feelings or just plain bad attitudes toward tattoos and people with tattoos.  I wanted to put my feelings out there too.  My tattoos helped through a time when not much else could.  They were the constant in my ever changing world.  They were my own therapy.  They were always very meaningful to me and now are on a much much deeper level. 

D getting his first ink for his 18th b-day.  Cutie C is being supportive. 

Tattoos are forever and that is what you may need one day.

*Thank you to Doug @ Sacred Images in Bozeman, MT for all the great tattoo work and conversations over the years.  Once cleared, we have more in the works.