Some of you may know that I’ve been patiently waiting to get my memorial tattoo for 3 months. I had picked out the exact design within a few weeks after Louie passed away. Then I found a portfolio from a tattoo artist at 2SpiritTattoo. This studio is terrific, but like everything else in SF, there is a very long wait.
Richelle decided to join the bandwagon for the least spontaneous tattoo ever as heartbreak has struck the Yeh family twice. My beautiful niece was stillborn in May 2010. Richelle got a sparrow tattoo in remembrance of her daughter. Laura's middle name is 懷 (Huai), which means "to think, to remember, to cherish".
I chose a celtic motherhood knot. There are two separate hearts shown as endless knots. Then the two hearts are intertwined as mother and child. I wear it on my wrist (technically upside down) because I like the idea of seeing something that reminds me of Louie every day. I can never hold him again, but he is a part of me.
In this interim wait time, the most common concern/question I encountered was “Are you sure about a tattoo? It’s permanent.”
It’s a very reasonable question. And all I can say is the permanence is exactly what I was looking for. I only got to hold Louie, my precious son, for a little over 24 hours in this life. There is nothing more permanent than the longing to be reunited with him. There is nothing more permanent than death. There is nothing more permanent than our love for him. The permanence is a perfect representation of Louie’s impact on my life - not just a past, but present and future.
“Other” children may come (although hard to imagine that day), but there is no replacement for Louie - just like there is no replacement for your mother or father or brother or sister. Family members are not interchangeable. It’s unclear to me why the public believes that somehow people become interchangeable if they’re really small or if you haven’t personally met them.
Louie and Laura - you will always have a permanent place in our families and hearts. (And now... an additional place in your mothers' arms.)
Louie and Laura - you will always have a permanent place in our families and hearts. (And now... an additional place in your mothers' arms.)
Normally I wouldn't think a blog post about tattoos would make me tear up, but so much for that not happening.... What a lovely piece and what beautiful emblems of the two children you will always carry with you. Thanks for sharing.... Hugs, Sean
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