Everything I do~ I do for you.

Since Thomas passed away, I have been trying to figure out how I was going to always keep his memory alive and keep his spirit and love with me always . . .

I decided about 6-9 months ago, I would get a tattoo for him. Then the journey of finding the right thing had to take place . . . Its hard to figure out what would represent him and that I would want to have on my body for "Always and forever".

I decided on Wings . . . then to find the right wings . . . Oh my . . . Searching . . . having people help me . . . searching more.

Jaqui and I went to the movies the other day and stopped in to a tattoo place to gage its "Mojo" and to see if they would have anything I'd like . . . Place had GREAT mojo, and they do custom tattoos, so my tattoo would be unique to me and me alone. How Wonderful! While we were at the movie, he drew it up and when we came back, I saw it for the first time and started to cry! It was PERFECT!!!

Last night was my appointment to get it done.

I went with Jessie and Jaqui~ My wonderful support system! And brought Thomas' scrapbook with me, so he could get to be a part of the process. I wanted to feel him with me!

Waiting for our appointment, Me and Jessie
Showing Todd, Thomas' picture so he could know him too, and know why I was doing this tattoo. I didn't want him to miss the reason for this adventure.

Deciding where it should go on my foot and putting the stencil on, this was my favorite part of the whole process . . . there was no pain involved in this part!

There it is the stencil of my tattoo. Too bad it wasn't just that simple and we could stop there and just have it be permanent!

The start of the outline.

By the time the outline was almost done (it was the worst part) I was about ready to crawl out of my skin!

I love this picture of me and Jaqui, we both look so confused for some reason!

Ok here is a more "Cuter" one of me and My BFF! She is wonderful and I love all her support and love! I couldn't do this life without her!! She is my anchor, my home base!

Finally!!! The outline is finally done! (See I really do wear my cast boot, almost all the time, ALWAYS when I'm out of the house, less when I'm in it . . . but then I try to sit most of the time IN the house~ I guess that's why my house is so dirty right now, I have been sitting)

This is what the outline looks like . . . I should have repainted my toenails before we went . . . oh well . . .

I'm working on getting to my "Blue place in my bubble" where the pain and the ickiness of life can't touch me . . . Having a hard time getting there since the foot is VERY boney and it hurts to get a tattoo on bones! I love Jessie's cute face!!!

Texting Mimi . . . I think she would have really like to have been there for this too . . . but sadly, Texas if too far to come for a Cheri driven Tattoo drama!

Adding white.

Adding pink for the center of the heart. (I love pink!)

They really took a lot of pictures of the pain of the tattoo process . . .

Adding more white, because he didn't think he had put enough . . . I let him decide what would be best, since he is the expert!

There were parts that were worse than others, like the bottom of the wings where they intertwine, That is on a super owie part of the foot!

Getting there, just a few more things, like shading.

Oh look how pretty it is with the shading!!! Still hurts like crazy, but I kept saying "Its for Thomas! I would do anything for Thomas!"

Pain always looks more painful in black and white. (HEY!!! What is Tim smiling about??? I'm over here having a painful moment and he is smiling! I think there should be a law against that!)

ALL DONE!!

I love it!!!! I totally love it! It was painful and I wished during the process that I wasn't doing it, but now that it's done I totally love it!!!

After the tattoo process Tim took us to dinner. Yumm! We needed food!!

And my wonderful support team!!! Thank you girlies for being here for me and loving me! I am so blessed!!