11 Beautiful memorial tattoos that pay tribute to passed loved ones
Memorial Tattoos - Part 1
A memorial tattoo can be an image, a quote, a poem or anything that represents a loved one who has passed. Some people go for a full portrait of said loved one whilst others opt for symbolism. It is in itself a varied subject matter that is unique and personal to the individual wearing the tattoo.
Whilst in the early stages of putting this blog together I reached out on social media to gather people's stories and was inundated with memorial tattoos; for this reason this week's post will be the first in a two part post, continued next week with more of the same.
Getting tattooed is clearly a popular way to pay tribute to someone you have lost, be it a loved family member, a friend, a pet or even a rock star. Tattooing is a permanent reminder always carried with you on your body. What better way to mark your respect and remember the people dear to you.
Touching tribute to her baby boy
The first memorial tattoo belongs to Hollie Russell. Hollie got this tattoo to pay tribute to the loss of her baby Leo. At this devastating time, with her family around her, Hollie's sisters wrote a beautiful poem to mark the short life of little Leo. Hollie decided to get this poem tattooed on her as a symbol of her beloved son's life. The poem reads as follows.
"For my precious little angel, I love you more each day,
With every passing thought you're never far away,
Feathers fall from heaven to remind me where you sleep,
Your face, your hair, your tiny hands in my heart I'll keep,
My soul is wrapped around yours, That is where it stays,
Until you're back in my arms, and we unite one day."
This is truly a touching tribute to Hollie's sad loss. It not only represents her beautiful baby boy but the support of her sisters and the rest of her family.
The feather is an image often seen in tattooing and is popular for memorial tattoos. This is because a white feather is seen as a spiritual sign from an angel or someone who has passed. A feather also represents freedom, and interestingly for native Americans feathers are an equivalent to medals. There are many different feathers you can get, each one with a different look and a slightly varied meaning.
Bird imagery is also very widely used in this type of tattoo and others. A bird tattoo represents freedom and also divinity or faith. This lends itself quite nicely to the memorial type tattoos. Couple this with a quote or poem that you feel best represents the person you are paying tribute to and the effect is quite striking.
This is a great example of a feather/bird tattoo. Sadly, I can't seem to match up the information on who sent me this image, so if it's yours, please do let me know.
"Basically my best friend passed away 3 years and nearly 8 months ago. He died from a river drowning and was only 15,he never got to finish his education let alone begin his summer holidays because the unfortunate event happened on the first day of the summer holidays. He never even made it into year 11,he was a massive part of my life and losing him was like losing another half of me. He was the most happiest,bubbliest person you could ever meet. When he died he was all in the newspapers and I still have those newspapers..he was all over YouTube and over the news. He’s now all over google with the articles and on google images,but that’s a part of him that lives on."
Gone but not forgotten
Leanne Mitchell got this as her first tattoo.
In the arms of Morpheus
These two tattoos belong to Jenni Kornel. Jenni tragically lost her father and mother. She also chose to contain her parents ashes in the ink she was tattooed with.
"I lost my Dad in 2016. He was an amazing man & we were very close. He died from asbestos related lung cancer & myself, my Mum & my sister were with him when he passed. He’d been unconscious for about 36hrs before he finally died & the last thing he said to me was ‘Let me sleep in the arms of Morpheus’. The time on the clock is 6.10am, the time he passed."
The relevance of this expression comes from the ancient Greeks who believed Morpheus (the son of Hynos the god of sleep) to be the god of dreams. While the pocket watch represents Jenni's father, the mandalas symbolise her mother. Both contain some of their ashes. This is such a beautiful way to pay tribute to those she loved so dearly.
RIP Cash
Someone who took it one step further is Laura Cronin.
Laura not only got her dog's ashes added to the ink but this is also his actual paw print.
"This is the tattoo. I got this tattoo in memory of my bullmastiff Cash. He died just before Christmas 2017. His ashes are in the tattoo and the pawprint is actually his. The writing is my own handwriting.
Im sure that anyone that has ever owned a dog will relate to Laura and why she went for this particular tribute tattoo.
Brotherly bond
Dino Varty got this piece to mark the loss of his brother.
"A WARRIOR'S MOST POWERFUL WEAPON ISN'T AN AXE, SPEAR OR SWORD"
A memorial tattoo can be an image, a quote, a poem or anything that represents a loved one who has passed. Some people go for a full portrait of said loved one whilst others opt for symbolism. It is in itself a varied subject matter that is unique and personal to the individual wearing the tattoo.
Whilst in the early stages of putting this blog together I reached out on social media to gather people's stories and was inundated with memorial tattoos; for this reason this week's post will be the first in a two part post, continued next week with more of the same.
Getting tattooed is clearly a popular way to pay tribute to someone you have lost, be it a loved family member, a friend, a pet or even a rock star. Tattooing is a permanent reminder always carried with you on your body. What better way to mark your respect and remember the people dear to you.
Touching tribute to her baby boy
"For my precious little angel, I love you more each day,
With every passing thought you're never far away,
Feathers fall from heaven to remind me where you sleep,
Your face, your hair, your tiny hands in my heart I'll keep,
My soul is wrapped around yours, That is where it stays,
Until you're back in my arms, and we unite one day."
This is truly a touching tribute to Hollie's sad loss. It not only represents her beautiful baby boy but the support of her sisters and the rest of her family.
The feather is an image often seen in tattooing and is popular for memorial tattoos. This is because a white feather is seen as a spiritual sign from an angel or someone who has passed. A feather also represents freedom, and interestingly for native Americans feathers are an equivalent to medals. There are many different feathers you can get, each one with a different look and a slightly varied meaning.
Bird imagery is also very widely used in this type of tattoo and others. A bird tattoo represents freedom and also divinity or faith. This lends itself quite nicely to the memorial type tattoos. Couple this with a quote or poem that you feel best represents the person you are paying tribute to and the effect is quite striking.
This is a great example of a feather/bird tattoo. Sadly, I can't seem to match up the information on who sent me this image, so if it's yours, please do let me know.
Living on forever in ink
Abigail Alves also choose a feather design to commemorate her beloved best friend.
Abigail Alves also choose a feather design to commemorate her beloved best friend.
"Basically my best friend passed away 3 years and nearly 8 months ago. He died from a river drowning and was only 15,he never got to finish his education let alone begin his summer holidays because the unfortunate event happened on the first day of the summer holidays. He never even made it into year 11,he was a massive part of my life and losing him was like losing another half of me. He was the most happiest,bubbliest person you could ever meet. When he died he was all in the newspapers and I still have those newspapers..he was all over YouTube and over the news. He’s now all over google with the articles and on google images,but that’s a part of him that lives on."
So Abigail decided to mark the tragic loss of her young friend with a beautiful tattoo as she goes on to explain.
"On February 7th I managed to get a tattoo dedicated to him in his memory and I spent 3 years and a bit figuring out what would be the perfect tattoo. I turned 18 this year and I decided for my first tattoo I was going to get his memorial tattoo,so I ended up getting it done and I can honestly say it was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life because now I’ve not only got something to remember him by but I’ve always got a part of him living on inside me."
Abigail's tattoo is the perfect example of this type of tattoo and the reasoning behind it. It is a beautiful sentiment that her best friend is not only "living on inside" her but also permanently marked on her as a constant reminder of his life.
Gone but not forgotten
Leanne Mitchell got this as her first tattoo.
It is a tribute to her mum and two brothers who have sadly passed.
The imagery is taken from the Bon Jovi album cover for their greatest hits. Leanne chose this image because her mum and brothers were huge Bon Jovi fans.
Not only this but she went on to explain.
"I also had my mum's ashes put into the ink."
This tattoo not only represents her love for her lost family members but represents them in a unique way and containing her mum's ashes makes it all the more special, in that she will literally always be with her.
The trend of having this type of tattoo, which contains ashes (sometimes known as ritual or commemorative tattoo) seems to be growing in popularity. Understandably so, as for a long time people have marked the loss of their loved ones by getting a tattoo to represent them, and ritual tattoos take this to a whole new level.
If having your loved ones ashes tattooed on you is something you feel interested in you can do it through a company call Engrave Ink https://engraveink.com/. This company will send you a kit to put some of the ashes in so that you can send this back to them and they will filter and sterilize the ashes and return them to you in your very own bottle of tattoo ink.
The trend of having this type of tattoo, which contains ashes (sometimes known as ritual or commemorative tattoo) seems to be growing in popularity. Understandably so, as for a long time people have marked the loss of their loved ones by getting a tattoo to represent them, and ritual tattoos take this to a whole new level.
If having your loved ones ashes tattooed on you is something you feel interested in you can do it through a company call Engrave Ink https://engraveink.com/. This company will send you a kit to put some of the ashes in so that you can send this back to them and they will filter and sterilize the ashes and return them to you in your very own bottle of tattoo ink.
In the arms of Morpheus
"I lost my Dad in 2016. He was an amazing man & we were very close. He died from asbestos related lung cancer & myself, my Mum & my sister were with him when he passed. He’d been unconscious for about 36hrs before he finally died & the last thing he said to me was ‘Let me sleep in the arms of Morpheus’. The time on the clock is 6.10am, the time he passed."
The relevance of this expression comes from the ancient Greeks who believed Morpheus (the son of Hynos the god of sleep) to be the god of dreams. While the pocket watch represents Jenni's father, the mandalas symbolise her mother. Both contain some of their ashes. This is such a beautiful way to pay tribute to those she loved so dearly.
RIP Cash
Someone who took it one step further is Laura Cronin.Laura not only got her dog's ashes added to the ink but this is also his actual paw print.
"This is the tattoo. I got this tattoo in memory of my bullmastiff Cash. He died just before Christmas 2017. His ashes are in the tattoo and the pawprint is actually his. The writing is my own handwriting.
He died of kidney disease and we had to watch him suffer which was heartbreaking. Eventually we knew it was the right thing to put him down.
I had him since I was 15. He wasn't just a dog, he was family."
Im sure that anyone that has ever owned a dog will relate to Laura and why she went for this particular tribute tattoo.
She also sent me a lovely picture of Cash himself.
Brotherly bond
"My brother Adi died on 11.02.2011.
Two weeks after he died, he was booked in to have this tattoo.
So I had it for him, in his honour.
I love you bro!"
The image is a brain made up of warriors with the lettering as follows.
"A WARRIOR'S MOST POWERFUL WEAPON ISN'T AN AXE, SPEAR OR SWORD"
The inspiration for this striking design was quite surprising, as Dino went on to explain.
"Unfortunately it's not unique. Adi found it in a magazine. It was used to advertise some play station game.
But we both loved it instantly."
This wasn't the only tattoo Dino has in tribute to his brother.
These tributes are so original and personal to Dino and his brother Adi and show what a unique bond the two of them must have had.
A different spin on a memorial tattoo
The final tattoo in part one of this post is a slightly different take on memorial tattoos. Belonging to Steffany Georgina Melluish. Steffany lost a dear friend in a tragic complication that followed on two years after a cycling accident. Steffany explained the full story.
"I had a friend at college (he was ginger- relevance of this will become clear shortly) who unfortunately suffered a cycling accident that left him paralysed from the waist down. 2 years later he passed away in his sleep from an undiagnosed brain condition that was linked to the accident. I wanted a tribute tattoo for him so, naturally, I got an orange in a wheelchair with the text "I wheely miss you"... Which I of course, tattooed on my arse."
Thank you so much to all those who sent in these personal tattoos and shared their sad stories with us. If you have any stories you would like to share, please comment below. Alternatively you can email me at clearinkaftercare@gmail.com. If you would prefer to remain anonymous, this is also fine.
"Unfortunately it's not unique. Adi found it in a magazine. It was used to advertise some play station game.
But we both loved it instantly."
This wasn't the only tattoo Dino has in tribute to his brother.
"The spiral on my bicep is a tattoo that my brother Adi had on his chest.
The other bicep says Zeb'n. That's how people in North Devon say seven, mine and Adi's favourite number. I designed it, entirely made from 7s."
Dino's other tattoos are not memorial or in tribute to anyone, but still worth a mention.
"The skull on my chest was done by Little Joe of Bangkok. With a gore movie on the telly and slipknot as a backing track. Very spiritual believe it or not. Joe said he was honoured to tattoo us. Special times.
The one on my forearm is that which dwells beneath my skin."
These tributes are so original and personal to Dino and his brother Adi and show what a unique bond the two of them must have had.
A different spin on a memorial tattoo
The final tattoo in part one of this post is a slightly different take on memorial tattoos. Belonging to Steffany Georgina Melluish. Steffany lost a dear friend in a tragic complication that followed on two years after a cycling accident. Steffany explained the full story.
"I had a friend at college (he was ginger- relevance of this will become clear shortly) who unfortunately suffered a cycling accident that left him paralysed from the waist down. 2 years later he passed away in his sleep from an undiagnosed brain condition that was linked to the accident. I wanted a tribute tattoo for him so, naturally, I got an orange in a wheelchair with the text "I wheely miss you"... Which I of course, tattooed on my arse."
This is Steffany's light-hearted tattoo. This tribute shows that neither Steffany or her late college friend took themselves too seriously and Steffany clearly has a great (all be it slightly in appropriate) sense of humour!
Thank you so much to all those who sent in these personal tattoos and shared their sad stories with us. If you have any stories you would like to share, please comment below. Alternatively you can email me at clearinkaftercare@gmail.com. If you would prefer to remain anonymous, this is also fine.
More memorial tattoos next week. If you liked this instalment check it out!
Comments
Post a Comment