Here at Quench Fashion and Beauty, we’re running a tattoo mini-series to share our love of ink! We wanted to hear your stories of the personal meanings behind your tattoos, so here’s our first edition – enjoy!

Words by Ellie Hutchings 

Before I got my tattoo (my first and only ÔÇô but hopefully thereÔÇÖll be more to come), IÔÇÖd known I wanted one for a long time. But, as my eighteenth birthday came and went, I never bit the bullet. In the end my tattoo became a very last-minute affair, with the appointment booked just the day before.

Through the years IÔÇÖd changed my mind constantly about what design I wanted permanently inked on my skin, until there was one that stuck. IÔÇÖve never been the type of person that insists tattoos should have some kind of important meaning to the person sporting them, so the possibilities had seemed endless.┬á

For me, inspiration struck in a place I think many tattoo dreams are realised, and that place is Pinterest. I came across a simplistic lavender design whilst hunting for something that appealed, and the image instantly resonated with me. Within minutes IÔÇÖd found a collection of designs I loved, and for someone who doesnÔÇÖt feel the need for tattoos to be symbolic, I managed to put a lot of meaning behind mine. Lavender has always reminded me of my dad ÔÇô we have a house at the end of our street with an abundance of lavender outside and he used to lift me up and show me how to rub my fingers against it so I could smell the flower. With that in mind, a lavender design felt perfect for me.

Part of the reason why it had taken me so long to get my tattoo was because, although I maintain that the design itself doesnÔÇÖt necessarily need to have a meaning, I wanted the place I got it done to be somewhere special. I very nearly had it done in Madrid when visiting a friend who lived there at the time, but when my friend – whoÔÇÖd promised to get inked with me – bottled it I changed my mind too. Getting a tattoo on my own just didnÔÇÖt seem as much fun.

In the end, I got my tattoo done in Bali whilst travelling with my boyfriend. My boyfriend and I have been travelling together quite a bit in the past, but IÔÇÖd always been reluctant to get a tattoo with him in case things didnÔÇÖt work out between us and it came to be more of a sad memory. But I went for it because the design was completely my own and something IÔÇÖd wanted for a long time (before I even knew my boyfriend in fact), but mostly because getting a tattoo in Bali worked out immensely cheaper than almost anywhere else.

The whole affair was a bit last minute, we drove past a roadside tattoo studio during our last few days of the trip and both decided we wanted to get one before we left. Of course, we did our research on where to go and eventually decided on Skin Canvas, a studio located in Uluwatu, on BaliÔÇÖs southern peninsula. With three days left before we flew home, we drove to Skin Canvas and made an appointment for the next day.

I was incredibly nervous once it came to it, not because I thought it would be painful (although it was, a little), but because I suddenly realised quite how much of a permanent decision I was making. I made my boyfriend go first and the second I saw his completed I was itching to get my own!

Ming did an incredible job and IÔÇÖm beyond thrilled with how it turned out. IÔÇÖve had my tattoo for a year this month and I love it just as much as I did on day one.

 

Words by Vittoria Zerbini

When I first met my Dutch friend during a year abroad in the UK I think we both realised that our friendship was different from the ones we previously had. Not in a romantic sense, but even from the first days of knowing each other we could stay in perfect silence, without that awkward feeling of having to talk. That year abroad made us both grow and discover ourselves, as well as our love for nature. In fact our favourite ways to spend time together were to sit under a tree on a cliff admiring the sea, or take a train to an undefined location and hop off where the forest looked the most interesting. And weÔÇÖd walk until dawn between those trees and fields.

When our year abroad came to an end we were both sad, we knew those days of blissful haze were gone. No one can recreate the past. But we did stay in touch during these last five years. Always texting or skyping and once a year IÔÇÖd go to visit her or sheÔÇÖd come to visit me. Of course in five years our lives have changed drastically but our friendship and memories of those months spent together hadn’t. To commemorate the experience that brought us together we decided to get matching tattoos. It wasnÔÇÖt easy deciding what design to get and where. And from whom. It took us nearly four years and I think we both believed that is was never going to happen.┬á

But this year she invited me to the Netherlands and I thought ÔÇ£There must be a good tattoo artist in Amsterdam that we can talk toÔÇØ. By complete chance, I found out that a Portuguese tattoo artist was going to Amsterdam exactly during the same days I was going to visit my friend. I sent her his Instagram handle (@mark_ostein) and she liked him too. Without hesitation we sent him an email with the design we had in mind and booked the appointment.┬á

A few months later we walked into MarkÔÇÖs studio and walked out of there six hours later, still shocked by the fact that after years of talking about getting a tattoo together, we had finally done it. Our inked floating whales will now remind us of each other, of those endless days spend in the forest and of our friendship. When looking at my whale IÔÇÖll know that kilometres away from me there is another one floating in the same woods, going in the same direction ready to meet again.

I also think that in some way the universe (IÔÇÖm not going to lie, writing this sentence is very weird for me as I donÔÇÖt really believe in these kind of things) confirmed that our tattoos are the right ones for us. After I left the Netherlands, my friend went to Canada with her family on holiday and there she saw five ÔÇ£peaceful and in a way elegantÔÇØ Humpback whales. She texted me as soon as she got the chance and sent me the pictures while also telling me that it was ÔÇ£one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in my lifeÔÇØ. A few days later I myself went on holiday with my family, but we headed to Namibia. There, while looking at seals and pelicans from a catamaran, some whales came to the surface of the ocean to greet us. I just stood there admiring those calm and big animals coming up for air and then diving back down into the ocean.┬á

That night I realised what an amazing coincidence it had been that both me and my friend had seen whales for the first time in our lives, in two very different and distant parts of the world, after getting tattooed two whales to celebrate our friendship. It felt like the meaning of our tattoos became alive and showed us that we had made the right choice in getting them. I guess life really does imitate art.