Tattoos...its part of my Story

Tattoos...everyone has their views of them. I've seen them tastefully done and others well you were wondering what they were thinking.  We all get them for different reasons. I never would have thought at age 17 when getting my first one I would end up with 8. Yes, I know...Brittany has 8 tattoos!! If you just glance at me you wouldn't even see them. They are there and they all tell a story. Part of my story.



Like I said my first one I got when I was 17. Good ole Spring Break! I was down in Daytona, FL for bike week with my God parents and family. Aka my dad and mom that didn't have to birth me but love me like they did.   It's special to me. I took the design from my twin sisters geometry project that she designed. It's a half sun/moon with a star off to the side. It's located on my right hip. I've always been fascinated that throughout the day with the sun shining brightly you can still see the moon. They are 93 million miles apart from each other but to me they are always together and forever apart. 

         My second tattoo came years later. I had wanted it for awhile and finally jumped at the chance to get it.  I knew I wanted my favorite verse, Jeremiah 29:11 in it. That's my fighter verse. It keeps me going on both good and bad days.  I picked my right foot for this design. I got the corny infinity symbol but that's okay. I also have three purple sparrows that fly over the top of it. At the time of me getting the tattoo I had experienced infertility for 3 years. Each bird represents a year of me wanting to be a mom.  It reminds me of the Hope that God gives me in his promises. Will I still be a mom one day? Maybe not. I don't know. I just have Hope that HIS plan will happen and not my own. I have come to terms that I might not meant to be a mom. I might just meant to love kids in a different way. And I believe I do. I have nephews, nieces, and am surrounded by kids all the time.

Then there was a hiatus from 2-3. Someone in my life didn't agree with them as much so I was respectful.  Then March of 2015 I got my 3rd one on my left foot.
It stands for my fighter phrase "The Struggle is Part of the Story" the theme for this blog, the theme I have put on my testimony, my trials and struggles.  It's the Bible with the pages turning.

Then March 2016 I got numbers 4 & 5 at the same time. After I took off my wedding ring it was hard. To look down and see nothing after wearing a ring on that finger since I was 13...first a promise ring, then my engagement ring, to wedding set.  I knew I wasn't going to try and save my marriage a second time and that was hard to handle. BUT...as I sat and prayed one day God helped me. I finally understood who I was I Christ for the first time. I was HIS daughter. He loved me through everything and would never abandon me. So I put a cross on my ring finger. So in times of hurt I can look down and be reminded of HIS promise to me.
I also put a heart with a semicolon. It reminds me that my story isn't over. It connects with the Bible. You end a sentence with a period. But a semicolon ; it means it keeps going. After the last two years I put this on my left wrist to be reminded that my life goes on after heartbreak. My story isn't over.




Then bring on Good Friday and #6 and some of the best girls to spend it with!! We all got tattoos together that day. I put the Christian fish on my right hand ring finger. I have worn a ring on my middle for the last 8 years that has the Christian fish all the way around it. I put the fish on my finger to represent my faith. The faith that got me through so much. 




Number 7...this one I spoke to me months before I got. I had planned this one before number 6 but this one I wanted on a certain day.  The day I got divorced. The day I said goodbye to the first love of my life. The one who also broke my heart. There is power inside someone to have your heart broke yet still move forward and love again. It's scary but beautiful.  The Lotus flower grows up from the bottom. The lotus flower symbolizes rising from a dark place into beauty and rebirth, as this is exactly how a lotus flower grows. Lotus flowers grow directly out of muddy and murky waters and produce beautiful blooms. That is what I did. I became a new person and believed in myself for the first time. I looked at myself and believed my life before me was beautiful.

Then my last one #8... This verse kept coming to me time and time again through my valley. God kept me close to him and kept me safe. I placed this one on my left upper rib. No matter what life is throwing at me. I know that God is covering me with his grace and mercy. Protecting me. I trust in Him to get me through it all.