Tootie Tattoos

First off, I must admit, I am one of those mothers who creates cutesy words for objects when the occasion calls for it. When Nick was a baby I started calling his feet tooties (footies but with a 't' instead of an 'f'). It caught on, with me anyway, and I've been calling my children's feet tooties ever since. I think, had it not been for daycare, Nick would still be calling his own feet tooties.

Anywho, when Nick was about 18-months-old, I decided to get a tattoo of his tooties. The hospital I delivered in does not do footprints when a baby is born, so I had to do them myself when he came home. They didn't turn out so well and I didn't want to get a tattoo of smeared ink, so I decided to do new prints and shrink them down. I thought I was being smart when I took my barefoot son into the office, stood him on the copier, set the machine to 40% and hit "copy". The image that spit out of the machine was perfect, but far from ink prints. At that point I realized that I really did have to get actual ink prints. Let me just tell you that inking the bottom of an 18-month-old's feet is not a good idea unless you're outside. Luckily I realized that pretty quickly and we moved out to the front porch. After many (and I do mean many) attempts, I finally got a set of prints I would be willing to have permanently tattooed to my body. Shawn was kind enough to pay for the tattoo for my birthday present that year. I decided to get the prints on the underside of my left wrist along with his first and middle names. Off to K&B we go and, walla, an adorable replica of Nick's little footprints imprinted on my wrist. Love it!

Now, I had decided prior to even getting the tattoo of Nick's feet that I would have to also get tattoos of the feet of any future children I might have. I even decided that, should my next child be a little girl, perhaps hand prints would be a great distinction between the two.

Well, Evan is nearly 2-years-old and I only just recently decided what and where I was getting tattooed in honor of my dear Evan. I did wind up getting his footprints as well, but decided against putting them next to Nick's or even on the other wrist. I decided to put Evan's on my back. Sort of symbolic of how much I allow this child to walk all over me. Not that Nick's not allowed, he just never did as much as Evan. Since my back if far larger than my wrist, I decided not to shrink down Evan's prints too much. They're pretty much true to size and positioned on my right shoulder blade. This time it was my brother who paid for the tattoo and, at his suggestion, we went to Mercury Tattoo. When I say this tattoo came out much, much better than the first it's like saying that the sun is hot. There is simply no comparison in the quality of work. It literally looks as if the tattoo artist dipped Evan's feet in ink and stamped them on my back with some magic ink that will never come off. It's simply amazing.

When we get home from the appointment I decided to show Nick. More so he didn't jump on my back and try to wrestle with me than anything else at that point. As soon as the bandage is taken off Nick asks, "how come Evan's are bigger than mine?" Luckily I thought he might notice/question that, so I was prepared to answer. I explained that, while Evan's are bigger, Nick's are more easily seen by everyone and that Nick's would have been true-to-size as well if my wrist was big enough for them to fit. He was happy with that explanation and hasn't given either tattoo another thought as far as I know.

Now, IF there's another baby and IF that baby is a girl, do I go with hand prints on the left shoulder blade, more footprints somewhere else or come up with another design all together? Since those questions do not need to be answered anytime soon I'm not going to worry too much about it, but I can tell you that I'm sure I will get more ink and I'm positive I will go back to Mercury Tattoo.