a tattoo story - featuring mae!

hello beautiful friends!  it's time for another tattoo story.  today's story comes from the lovely Mae of soldiers, sweethearts and seeking faith.  her tattoo story is absolutely amazing and i can't wait to share it with you all today :)

---------------------------------------

Hi, my name is Mari. I go by Mae on my blog.
There are three separate and important parts of my tattoo story.

When I was seven, my mom gave birth to my sister Victoria Rose. She was the fourth child to be born into our family. I remember being so excited for her to arrive. It was a home birth. Almost immediately it became apparent that something was wrong. My parents took her to the hospital where she stayed for two weeks. They said she had Trisomy 18, which is a disorder in which you have an extra chromosome 18. (Down Syndrome is Trisomy 21). I now know that the lower the number the less chance of survival of the child. My beautiful sister made it three weeks. November 19th to December 14th 1996. Even though I barely knew her, she is my family and I will always love her and be glad that I knew her.
A while later my mom and sisters and I were at Gottschalks Department store. We were roaming around looking at pretty things. While we were in the china section my mom picked up a plate with a pretty rose pattern and turned it over. It said "Victoria Rose". She knew she had to have it. This name turned out to be a misprint from the actual name of the pattern, which is "Victorian Rose". We own two place settings of this china, one with the misprint and one with the correct name. Whenever we have a special occasion we set the place for my mom with the Victoria Rose place setting. It has become a tradition in my family.

I have known for quite some time that I wanted to have tattoos.I have known for a long time, also, that I wanted to get one that memorialized my sweet sister. I took a picture of the Victoria Rose patterned china into the shop and talked to my artist about it. He drew up the tattoo for me based on the pattern. I wasn't sure if I wanted to put any words with it but I decided to place "always" underneath the rose. It's vague, but I know what it means. To me it means that her memory will always be with us, and she will live on through our family.

I hope my story didn't make you sad, as that was not my intention. I'm not sad about what happened anymore, it's been almost fifteen years since I was blessed to know Victoria Rose. I know that my tattoo will help tell her story to my family and friends for years to come.

Thanks for reading!

-------------------------------------

thank you so much for sharing your tattoo story with us mae!  if you have a tattoo story you would like to share feel free to send it my way scenicglory{at}gmail{dot}com ♥ XO, lindsay