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Elliot’s Serenity Prayer Tattoo Story

I got this tattoo in Casa Grande, Arizona. It is a tattoo of a prayer called “The Serenity Prayer.” The prayer reads as follows.. God grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two. The name of the Shop is called Aces and Eights.

The motivation for me to get this tattoo was that i have had a problem with
drug addiction since i was about 16 yrs old. I pretty much was using cocaine about 4-5 times a week thru all 4 years of college. I managed to graduate from college (took me an extra year, so i graduated in 5 years)and all while being on a full athletic scholarship. My senior year with about 2 weeks left before winter break i got busted by campus security(luckily not police) and i od’ed and got kicked off campus and almost lost everything but i managed to work out a deal where if i could complete 60 days in a treatment center and then pass random drug tests and do outpatient 3 hours a week for rest of my senior year i would be able to stay in school and continue to play on the athletic team i was on.

Every day in treatment at least 3-4 times a day we had to recite that prayer and it just started to stick with me. I got the tattoo a week after i graduated and have been drug free since the day i got it. The tattoo stands for my sobriety and the commitment i have to myself and everyone that cares about me to stay that way.

- Elliot

Brittany’s Unbreakable Tattoo

A few months after I turned 18 I went with one of my friends when she got a tattoo. Looking back I probably should have waited to look around at other shops to get such a large piece on my back but, I got it and even with its flaws, I love it.

Up until I was 17 I suffered through sexual abuse when I was very young, never having a real father figure, finding a suicide victim when I was 12 (my step father), being prone to severe depression and when I was 17 losing my mom and big brother within two weeks of each other. Honestly, I dont like to lay it all out there but it needs to be known for the reasons of my tattoo. I got it to remind myself that no matter how hard a situation, I can get through it; no matter how much it seems like Im going to break, I wont.

Ive lead a hard life up until the age of 17 and Im not ’screwed up’ because of it. I managed to still have a pretty level head on my shoulders and not let hard things get in my way of living life. Unbreakable represents how I live. It represents everything Ive gone through and how I plan on living the rest of my life.

The word Unbreakable represents me. The cherry blossoms remind me to live life to the fullest and no regrets. Its on the back of my right shoulder, taking up basically the whole upper right section of my upper back. I plan to add more to it later on.

- Brittany

Maggie’s Swallow Tattoo Cover-Up

I got this tattoo in summer ‘06, it’s covering up a spur-of-the-moment 18th birthday tattoo, which happened to be the good old Nirvana drunken smiley face (see picture below). I decided that I’d rather have a tattoo that had a meaning behind it, so I got this swallow to cover it up. It was designed and done by Sean at Voodoo Monkey in Cleveland, OH.

To me it symbolizes freedom. A few months before getting it I “left the nest” so to speak, and moved 1400 miles from home to a place I had never been before. The reason for the flower: the swallow will never be able to put it down, just like I feel I will never be able to settle down for too long in one place.

-Maggie

Tattoo Artist: Sean at Voodoo Monkey, Cleveland, OH

Original Nirvana Smiley Tattoo

Samantha’s Dragonfly Tattoo

From the time I was 3 until I was about 13 my stepfather sexually molested me almost every night. In 7th grade I finally told someone and it seemed as if my life would always revolve around him and what I went through as a child. 5 years later I decided that it was time to put it all behind me and start with a clean slate.

I live in NY, but I got this tattoo in Canada, 2 months after my 18th birthday. My dad designed it for me with the tattoo artist that day. It means so much more to me because of that.

The dragonfly symbolizes endurance and my mental and emotional growth and maturity. It is said that people who have the dragonfly as their totem have had passionate and emotional early years, but as they grow older they achieve emotional and mental clarity and control. That’s me.

The character to the dragonfly’s left is the kanji symbol for “LIFE.” The symbol is a reminder to me that I have so much to live for, that the life I lead for last ten years does not have to be the one that leads me for the next ten.

And if you look closely there is an “S” where the dragonfly’s body should be because I am that creature and that creature is me.

I GOT THIS TATTOO SO THAT WHENEVER I LOOK OVER MY SHOULDER AND TO THE PAST I CAN REMEMBER THAT I HAVE ENDURED, THAT I HAVE GROWN, AND THAT THAT PART OF MY LIFE IS BEHIND ME…

- Samantha

Tattoo Artist: Sergei
Lower East Side Tattoo and Body Peircing - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tracy’s Elephant Tribute Tattoo

This is my second tattoo (my first one is on my ankle.) It’s located on my right shoulder. I got this for my Mother who passed away when I was only 15.I didn’t get it until I was 17 because I didn’t want to rush into just anything, it had to be something that would apply to her and me.

It was the craziest thing, one day I was sitting at my table and I looked at this notepad we had and there were two elephants on it. Since elephants were her favorite animal everything in my house is elephant. Why I never saw it before, I don’t know but once I saw that picture I knew that’s what I wanted.

So I made it personal by adding the Halo and the writing, Called up my tattoo guy and got it done. It really helped me get through the hard times and made me feel that now she would always be with me.

-Tracy

Tattoo Artist - Sean Duffy @ Phenom-A-Bomb Tattoo in PA