Yesterday I experienced something new.  I was invited to watch my sister-in-law, Chloe, get her first tattoo.  I don't have tattoos myself and never witnessed anyone getting a tattoo in person.

I love new experiences!

 

She decided to go to New Republic tattoo shop to get it done.  Matt Carmer was her artist.  She made a good decision.

 

She had her dad write "True peace is found in this moment " because she wanted it in his handwriting.

She also wanted a dove with it.

She took it to Matt and he made it original.

 

I learned some things while watching her get her tattoo that had nothing to do with tattooing.  Not really.

I learned that it helps to have a nice tattoo artist.  Matt was awesome, very personable.

Not only him, but in the time I spent at New Republic, I found that all of the tattoo artist there are super nice, very friendly, and pretty funny too.

We learned Matt lived in Terre Haute for ten years.

We heard all kinds of stories about Terre Haute and how awesome it's not.

Relax, Terre Haute-ians...it's nothing personal...and yes, we know...Larry Bird is from Terre Haute.

I am sure you have an annual parade for that fact.

I asked lots of questions to keep things light and to sort of kill the time.

By doing this, I found out Matt went to school to be an art teacher.

AND...for all you tight ass people that say

"tattoos are for ________(fill in the blank with your negative close mindedness)",

"tattoos are dirty",

"tattoos are ridiculous"

....the list goes on...

for all of you haters out there...

Matt graduated from college.

Yep, the degree is on the wall...right behind the personal lubricant :)

behind his sterile supplies.

In my personal experience, the people that have negative things to say about tattoos and tattoo artisits...

they don't have a college degree.

And I bet they don't go to work doing something they like doing everyday.

(who's the dummy now?)

I will now step down from my soapbox.

We also found out that Matt has been married, for eight months.

And not long after that, his lovely wife came in.

She was super cute.

  Again for you haters, she didn't have a cigarette hanging from her mouth, living the hard life... rode her Harley to the shop.

Nope, she was a little, petite cutie.

And again I say, haters...how cute and sweet is your wife?

We talked about what his grandmas think of his tattoos.

We talked about how getting the tattoos on his neck was super painful.

We talked about how holocaust survivor, Eva Kor, who opened the Candles Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute,

told him one time (while he was opening a door for her in public)

"look at your arms, you ruined them."

I love hearing stories from people's lives.

We also heard about Die Hard (the latest one) and what a good (and unrealistic) movie that is.

All the while I was telling Chloe it was not a dove he was tattooing on her, but a large hand giving the middle finger.

Until, finally...

it was the time for the reveal.

My favorite part!  Look at that face!

Pictures of people taking pictures of people :)

One for the portfolio.

The end result, not healed yet, of course - so it will look different later.

 I love that someone as young as Chloe wants something on her that is so profound.

True peace is found in this moment.

Many thanks to Matt Carmer for allowing me to take pictures, pick his brain, and hang out.

Thanks to all of the New Republic staff for being awesome, friendly, and making us feel very welcome!