It seems that stretch marks are not the only things these days that are lasting reminders of a child’s birth for today’s mom. Gone are the days of phone book sized photo albums being lugged out of mom’s purses as well. Today’s mom is etching herself with permanent reminders of their babies. You won’t see today’s mum with anchors, snakes or skulls, or even hearts with birthdates….the mom of 2008 is replacing these standard tattoo symbols with baby footprints, Teddy bears, and the occasional Disney princess. But today’s mom and dads are getting more creative in the merge of their children with body art as time passes on…
Handprints, footprints, pictures of their babies are among the most common tattoos for parents wanting to permanently mark their bodies with their kids. In some cases, parents are even having their children’s art work transformed into tattoo art for their skin. And parents commemorating their children in body art is not a small thing. It’s becoming one of the ‘it’ things to do for today’s parent.
Many tattoo parlors are reporting parent art at a rate of as many as 3 or 4 tattoos a week, and many parents getting kiddo tattoos are first timers. This is considered an increase from days gone by, and the increase is being attributed to shows such as “Inked” and “Miami Ink” as shows that are making tattoos more mainstream. Nowadays it seems everybody wants one, and even more important are the meanings behind getting tattoos.
Celebrity parents are fueling this trend, which is not unusual since many trends come out of Hollywood to begin with. Angelina Jolie for example has the birthplace latitude and longitude co-ordinates of her children emblazoned on her upper arm. Victoria Beckham has a star for each of her sons, Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz, etched on her lower back. Eminem has a tattoo portrait of his daughter Hailie Jade on his arm, and Johnny Depp has the names of his children, Lily Rose and Jack etched on his arm and chest. Former Project Runway winner, Jeffrey Sebelia put a tattoo of his two year old son Harrison Detroit’s name across the front of his neck.
One of the reason that parental tattoos are rising, outside of the influence of Hollywood and reality shows, is the permanent nature of the art. More adults are choosing tattoos of their children due to the fact that the tattoo has a lower chance of regret associated with it.
What is the most common parent tattoo? A child’s name is the first choice, however baby footprints are a very close second nowadays.