Pet Tattoos

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

12 Jun 2008 08:23 PM

I was paging through a recent edition of BARK magazine and couldn't help but notice a feature article about pet tattoos. Not tattoos FOR pets -- people who get tattoos of their pets.

It seems that there are lots of people out there choosing to get a tattoo to memorialize a lost pet, or just express love for a current pet. The article had pictures of a variety of styles, from full color portrait to cartoonish puppies playing. There was even a cute one of a stick-figure human with a ponytail chasing after a stick-figure dog. I also liked one that showed a stylized dog head hidden within an abstract design.

Just a few days earlier, my younger brother sent me a picture of a tattoo he's planning to get for his dogs. It looks like a ribbon wrapped around a bone-shaped dog biscuit. On the ribbon will be his dogs' names: Kuma and Lily.

For a long time, I've been thinking about a tattoo to memorialize my dog Miko -- he was by far the most wonderful dog in my life. (At least so far.) I'm pretty much decided on where it'll go: on my right hip, so his memory will always be at my side. As for what I want the tattoo to be, I'm still undecided. A simple paw print would work. My brother suggested a "paw and Milkbones" -- a variation on the pirate skull and crossbones. That would be cute, but I'm not sure it's quite my style. Another thought would be the silhouette of a dog howling at the moon, kind of like this illustration I did years ago for a children's book:

Other suggestions? I don't want anything too big, but I do want a permanent reminder of Miko's place in my heart. I also don't want to put his name on it -- I'm not personally a fan of tattoos with names or letters.

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Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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