Family.
When I was little I my mother an I lived with my grandparents. They have been extremely influential in my life, and we have a special bond. When my grandfather was in the Navy, he got himself many tattoos that he later came to regret. I never understood why he disliked his tattoos(except for one I guess) because they seem to interesting and cool to me. They represent a piece of his story, and in turn a small piece of him.
One of those tattoos is a small seahorse on his lower right leg, just below his calf, just above his ankle. Its colors are faded and the lines have been blurred by time, but it’s still there more than 50 years later.
Around 2012, my mother got a seahorse tattoo on her left leg in nearly the same spot. It was larger, beautifully colored, and to me it represents a deep and undying love of her father. At that point I started wanting one of my own, and thought it would be so cool for our whole family to each have one. It would be so cool if we each had different designs. It’d be like a symbol of our family.
In the Summer of 2013, just after I graduated high school, I went into a tattoo parlor by myself on a whim. I asked for a tattoo and had it done within an hour. Best $100 I’ve ever spent. I went home to show my mom “The newest fish in the family”.
In the following years, each of my siblings have gotten their own seahorses. Different designs, same place. Some have more tattoos, though nobody rivals our mother lol.
So that’s what it’s about.