Travel, heritage, friendship, oceans, books, and personal milestones.

Do you have a tattoo? Do you want a tattoo? If you have a tattoo, what’s the story of your first one? Is there a story?

I remember getting my first tattoo in 2007. I went with my brother to get his first. He really wanted one, and I did too. My best friend Anne had gotten a quarter-sized heart, and my thought was basically, “that sounds like a good size,” but I still didn’t know what I wanted to get. Chinese symbols were super popular at the time, but I didn’t want to get something that didn’t actually mean what it was supposed to mean. Also, I didn’t want people looking at me and thinking, “Is she Chinese?”

I wanted something that meant “lucky,” since that’s supposedly what my name means. I landed on a four-leaf clover. No one would think I was Irish. Nearly 20 years later, that four-leaf clover remains a fond memory. It doesn’t commemorate some major life event. There wasn’t a profound reason behind it other than celebrating my brother turning 18. That, apparently, was enough to get things started.

Heritage, Elephants and My Name
My second and third tattoos I got around the same time in early 2016: a small elephant and my name written in Lao.

The Lao served as a connection to my culture and heritage. But there was also a very practical reason for choosing my own name: it’s my name. I’m never going to have to get it removed or covered up because of a breakup. The small elephant, why not? It was cute. But also, elephants are special animals for both Thailand and Laos, so even something I initially chose because I liked it ended up connecting back to party of my identity. It started to become a pattern.

The Cities I’ve Called Home
Later that year (2016), I got my first big tattoo: the NYC skyline. The funny part was that I actually got it in Minneapolis. It was a way for me to remember my time in New York, including the years I lived there. It was my biggest tattoo at the time, and somehow, one of my cheapest. Thank you, Sam, who was an apprentice at the time. The dates of my time in NYC are written in Sam’s own handwriting, and she freehanded a little red apple into the design.

A few years later came Chicago (2020). My Chicago skyline was actually done in NYC and was considerably more expensive, $400 just for the outline. The artist suggested making it a reflection of my NYC tattoo, which I loved. Later, I would have it shaded in (in Chicago vs NYC wehre it was originally done) and the dates of my Chicago years in my artist, Caitlin’s handwriting. She also freehanded “The Bean.”

Looking at those tattoos now, they’re not really tattoos of skylines; they’re chapters. I’ve lived in different cities and different countries, and I’ve never thought of “home” as having to mean only one place. New York and Chicago are places where I built lives. Putting them on my body was my way of carrying those versions of myself forward.

Eat. Drink. Explore
One of my most spontaneous tattoos came in Hawaii in December 2019.

I was traveling with friends, but one was already on a flight back to Chicago and the other was already on the other side of the island. I had six hours to kill before my own flight and had run out of things to do. Naturally, I decided I might get a tattoo. I told myself that if the price was reasonable, I’d do it. The price was exactly within my range. So, I got an airplane and globe tattoo from an artist who happened to also be a pilot, then hopped on a plane home.

Eventually, that little globe would become something much bigger. In 2022, I finally expanded an idea I’d had for a while: turning the globe into a hot air balloon, with a suitcase instead of a basket. P’Van did an amazing job. Above it, he wrote, “Eat.Drink.Explore”. He also added little travel stickers to the suitcase himself. They were a delightful surprise. Of all my tattoos, this one might come closest to being a personal motto.

The Stories That Came with Me
Before moving to Thailand, I wanted one more tattoo with Sam: Le Petit Prince.

It was my first real fine-line tattoo and the beginning of another theme that had quietly found its way onto my bodies: stories.

Later came the Deathly Hallows for Harry Potter.

Neither tattoo needs to prove that I love books. They’re simply pieces of stories that have stayed with me.

Friendship, Travel, and a Longtail Boat
Thailand is where my tattoo collection really started growing.

In 2022, I already knew I wanted to get a tattoo there. I just didn’t know exactly what I wanted, or who I’d get it with. I was showing Ashley some designs I was considering when she found one she liked and asked if she could get it. It would be her first tattoo. It was to commemorate her love of travel and the journey she was currently on. I mean, they’re not my designs. I told her we could just get the tattoos together, and so we did.

We got heartbeats with airplanes at the end. I chose a paper airplane because, at this point, I already had a regular airplane elsewhere. That was tattoo #9, and it was done by P’Van, who would eventually do many more of my tattoos.

A few months later came one of my favorite spontaneous tattoo stories. Jessie, Sky, and I were sitting outside drinking, or more accurately, we were just starting to drink. We’d gotten a tower so we could sit, chill, and people watch. I casually mentioned that my tattoo studio was just across the way.

Sky looked at us, “Should we get tattoos?”
I looked at Jessie, “What do you think?”
Jessie, “Sure, why not?”
Well, apparently we were getting tattoos.

We asked the server to save our drinks and our seats because we’d “be right back.” We hadn’t really thought it through. When we got upstairs, P’Van was available. One hurdle down. Then he asked us what we wanted. We hadn’t thought that far either. We knew we all liked traveling. We were in Thailand. We were friends. I immediately vetoed an airplane because I already had two. A train didn’t seem logical. Eventually, we landed on a boat. The next question was, what kind? Then we had the perfect answer: a Thai longtail boat, with waves added at Sky’s request. Then, I had tattoo #10.

It wasn’t commemorating some milestone we’d planned months in advance. It commemorated us, sitting together in Thailand, deciding on a random evening that getting matching tattoos sounded like a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

And maybe that’s exactly why I love it.

Siblings
Another Thailand tattoo brought me back to the person who was there for tattoo #1: my brother.

Before my mom, brother, and I traveled to Thailand together, my brother and I had already decided we’d get tattoos. We wanted something fun. Once again, we went to P’Van. We ended up getting “matching” tattoos from Phineas and Ferb. My brother got Ferb. I got Candace. (Real sibling relationship). Even better, when we stand next to each other, Ferb and Candace fist bump. One of the best parts is meeting someone who recognizes the show.

And Then Came the Ocean
Eventually, something else that had become a major part of my life needed its own space: diving.

My first diving tattoo was a whale shark. By then, I’d been lucky enough to see and dive with several of them. He is the cutest whale shark. I now wish he were a little bigger. That was followed by a diver next to the whale shark, representing an actual moment from my dive life at Richelieu Rock in the North Andaman Sea. Again, I wish they were both slightly bigger, but they’re also both extremely cute.

Then came the first of what I eventually want to be three armbands. The first is the ocean: blue, flowing, filled with waves and sea creatures. P’Van was able to capture exactly the feeling I wanted. The other two I have planned are space and nature/earth. Ocean. Earth. Space. Apparently, I’ve decided subtlety isn’t necessary.

The People Who Walk Through Life with Me
One of my newest tattoos came because Rachana finally made it out to Thailand to visit me, when I no longer lived there, just sayin’.

It was our first vacation abroad together, and we decided to commemorate it. We each got a globe with a girl walking around it. Mine has a Thai/Lao girl; hers has an Indian girl. Underneath is a small lotus and the coordinates for Bangkok. When we stand next to each other, the girls walk toward one another.

And I think that’s one of the things I love most about my tattoos. Some mark places. Some mark people. Some mark things I love. Some mark versions of myself. And some only exist because I was sitting with someone I cared about and one of us said, “Should we get tattoos?”

So What Do My Tattoos Actually Say?
People always say that once you get your first tattoo, it’s hard to stop. Sixteen tattoos later, I’m still probably not in a position to argue. But when I look at all of them together, I realize I’ve accidentally created a kind of illustrated autobiography.

There’s travel everywhere: airplanes, globes, a suitcase, a longtail boat, coordinates, cities I’ve called home.
There’s heritage: my Lao name, elephants, Thailand, and the little Thai/Lao girl walking around a globe.
There’s friendship and family: Ashley, Jessie, Sky, Rachana, my brother, and even the handwriting of artists who became part of the stories themselves.
There are oceans and the life I’ve discovered underneath them.
There are books and stories that mattered, places I’ve lived, countries I’ve moved to, trips I’ve taken, people I’ve loved, and versions of myself I don’t want to forget.

None of that was planned when I got a quarter-sized four-leaf clover because my best friend’s tattoo seemed like a reasonable size. I wasn’t trying to tell the story of my life. But somewhere along the way, that’s what my tattoos became. I already know there are at least two more coming: a space-themed armband and a nature/earth-themed one. After that? Who knows.

There will probably be another trip. Another person. Another place. Another ridiculous spontaneous decision that somehow turns into a story worth keeping. And apparently, I like keeping mine in ink.