Okay folks, I did it, I made it to the 30 under 30 list. In my case, this is about me getting 30 tattoos under the age of 30 instead of being honoured by Forbes for being an up and coming star. but it's a super fun thing to have done nonetheless!
I also didn't realise until I started drafting this post, (in July, hi from the past!), that all of these tattoos are pretty connected - the main reason that I got all of them is because I'm super leaning into healing my inner child right now, especially right before I turn 30 in just over a month, and all of these tattoos are in some way an expression of me growing up while remembering that tapping into my childlike wonder doesn't make me childish, but instead it makes me happy, and it's a celebration of joy and love for the things that I cherish.
First up is a flash piece by Loren from Loaded Forty Four in Manchester, that I got with my fellow swiftie, Emma, back in July! We got three Taylor Swift tattoos between us and they are all so adorable. Mine is a circular tattoo which says 'All of Me Changed Like Midnight', from her song Midnight Rain. I call this my Lorelai Gilmore tattoo even though it has nothing to do with her, but just because I really feel like I was drawn to it for similar reasons that she might be - she also escaped her traumatic childhood and built a life for herself that was fully her own, just like I've done over the past few years. Midnights is one of my favourite albums and the feeling of growing apart from people but staying true to yourself is one that I think it so prevalent in a lot of the songs. I included a bunch of wholesome memes about no longer being afraid of change when I posted about this tattoo on Instagram and thought it would be good to include those here too! Change can be a good and necessary part of life and this tattoo reminds me of that.
At the time of writing, we have just moved into our beautiful new house 11 days ago and we already love it, and are so much happier here, which is even further proof of this!
I think the placement of a circular tattoo on the circular part of my shoulder looks so perfect, and I totally love it.
It was my first time visiting Manchester and I loved getting to explore with Emma! We went to Don Taco for food after our tattoos and it was so delicious, we definitely have to go back and get more flash from Loren because we fell in love with so many of her other designs too, especially her TTPD flash.
I then returned to one of my favourite places on Earth, Studio Luna Nova, in the middle of October, just before they celebrated their 2 year anniversary of being in their new studio, huge congratulations to them! The gorgeous Maly did these two custom designs for me, and I'm so obsessed with them, they're definitely two of my new favourites.
The first is an homage to my newfound obsession with jellycats, I've gifted two of my friends jellycats over the past year but couldn't decide which one I wanted to buy for myself until this year, so Cocoa is my first, and I love her so much that I wanted to get her tattooed on to me. She's a super soft and adorably happy hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on top, and Maly did the perfect job recreating her. I absolutely love the white ink to accent the stars and her eyes, such a pretty detail to include!
A core thing to know about me is that I love a good 'hocho', as Lorelai Gilmore would jokingly say*, I had a cute solo breakfast at Cafe Nero on my way to the studio and had a hot chocolate with my panini, and then I had another one on my way home. I am an Autumn girly right down to my core, so this one is very special and important to me as a person.
*I couldn't find a screenshot of this Gilmore Girls scene which didn't look like it was taken on a potato in 1846, but it's from S4, E12!
The second tattoo that Maly did for me on this day is a vintage milkshake with 'dessert person' written beautifully underneath it in cursive, which is my take on a New Girl tattoo. I've been a fan of the show since it was first airing in 2011, and I've rewatched it at least once or twice a year since, so I thought it was about time I got a tattoo for the show. I wasn't entirely sure what would stand out to me on this year's rewatch, but there's a scene from one of my favourite eps, Jess and Julia, where Jess offers Julia a cookie or cupcake, and she says that she's 'not really a dessert person' in response. Jess' face is so incredibly relatable to me in that moment, and I knew I'd found my tattoo.
Of all the sweet treats in the world, I think that I drink milkshakes the most, particularly oreo milkshakes whenever I go to the cinema, so I thought that was the perfect thing to get. I also love the vintage vibe of the milkshake glass, as it reminds me of American diners, which I absolutely adore and need to visit way more often than I do.
Anyway, Jess' absolute refusal to believe that someone could hate desserts aside, the episode is also one of my favourites because it's all about Jess taking back her power, and knowing that she can be both girly and strong - she can brake for birds, while wearing polka dots, and still be incredibly brave and intelligent. As someone who is also incredibly childlike and quirky myself, I heavily relate to this message and it's something I want to remember. I can, and will continue to be both!
I was in the studio for a total of 4 hours for these, which is what happens when your tattoo artist becomes one of your best friends, and because I brought props in with me so we could take some super pretty tattoo photos and videos - Cocoa very much enjoyed being taken along for the ride to watch herself get permanently tattooed on to my arm!
I am very lucky and blessed to have Maly, and we had the best time catching up.
The final tattoo of this post was done by the incredibly lovely Phoebe at Love More in Brighton, my first tattoo by Phoebe, but my second from this studio overall. This is a tattoo which was inspired by a custom piece on her Instagram page that I fell in love with, and really wanted something similar to.
This tattoo features two super adorable fairies frolicking, surrounded by magical sparkles, on the upper left of my back, and I'm incredibly enamoured with how Phoebe customised this for me, they even have long black hair just like mine, how special is that!
These fairies represent a sense of returning to my childhood as an adult, to take back the freedom that I didn't have then, but do now, as I'm on my way to my 30s. I love that there's two fairies as it has a playfulness to it that I really love, and it also reminds me of this Uptown Girls meme that I recently saw on Twitter (it's an incredibly beautiful film, if you haven't seen it)
To me, this tattoo is about embracing girliness, and bringing magic and whimsy back into my life for my 30s. There's a quote by C.S Lewis that reads 'someday, you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again', and that's exactly what this tattoo symbolises for me.
I absolutely love fairies and what they represent, I dressed up as tinkerbell for Halloween in 2017, and totally loved that costume. I also used to accidentally leave glitter on Stephen when we first met because of the amount of highlighter/sparkly body lotion I used to, (and still do), wear, which was probably one of the reasons that led us to having a glitter bar at our wedding reception āØļø
Ending the year with these as my final tattoos of 2024, right before I turn 30 in December, as a reminder to myself that this next decade will only bring more magic, more joy, and more whimsy into my life, is so incredibly special and I love that for me.
As always, I've popped this into the 'tattoos' category on my blog, so feel free to have a scroll through that if you missed any of my previous rundowns of my tattoos.
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