Amanda & Molly - A short lived life, a never ending love.

Memorial tattoos are probably my favourite pieces to do. Not only do I love making a lasting impression on my client, by forever keeping their lost love ones close to them, but I also love hearing the stories behind those whom they have lost.

One of my most recent tattoos, was on Amanda.

Amanda had contacted me a couple weeks ago, and had asked me if she could possibly book a tattoo session. As she was already well aware, as most of my clients around town are, that I am extremely booked up. (I am presently booking almost a year in advance, and she was prepared to wait.) I was about to tell her that I was not taking any new clients on until after this summer, as I am trying to get caught up on my bookings, when I had a cancellation. She literally messaged me 3 minutes before my cancellation, and asked for me to book her in.

"How does next Wednesday sound?" I messaged her.

Amanda replied "The 25th?" (April)

"Yes, otherwise I am booking into mid-Januaray of next YEAR! :/" I replied.

"...that's my ONLY day off next week. Serendipitous."

Serendipitous for sure! This tattoo was MEANT to happen.

Now, Amanda's memorial tattoo isn't one that I would commonly get for a memorial piece, but I have done some. It was for a very special young lady who had been in her life for 5 1/2 years. Molly.

Molly was Amanda's beloved dog.

Amanda had fallen in love with Molly the first time she saw her, when Molly was 6 months old. Molly was born with a congenital heart condition, and wasn't expected to live longer than 4 years. Amanda adopted Molly and became absolute best friends. Amanda made sure that she would make her whole life, Molly's whole life.

Molly was silly and goofy, and always put laughs and smiles to many faces. She would bring house visitors new toys to play with, and was always the life of the party.

Throughout the years, veterinarians had told Amanda, that the best case scenario would be 4 years of life for Molly. When they hit the 4 year mark of Molly's life, it became very stressful for Amanda, as she didn't know what tomorrow would bring. Molly's heart was 3 times the size of a normal dog her size. When Molly turned 5 years old, the vets and vet assistants would call Molly the 'Miracle Dog'; saved and surpassed the expectations of the animal doctors by love alone.

Sadly, Molly passed away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 5 1/2 years.

So this dedication is to Molly. A truly lovable soul, and a pup that I would have loved to have met.

Amanda was accompanied by a close friend of hers to her tattoo appointment. We both decided on the perfect pose to use for Amanda's session, and I will be adding flowers around the portrait of Molly to fill up the space at a later date.

This tattoo took me approximately 4 1/2 hours to complete. As a matter of fact, during this time, my close friend, Brett was up here visiting from Alberta with his wife Tammy. Brett is my first apprentice I ever taught. He was quite happy to be here during a full colour portrait tattoo session. I don't get to do many of these. This particular piece on Amanda was such a fun project to do, and I can't wait to start round 2 on her.

And here is the completed first session.

Thank you very much for stopping by, and reading Amanda's story. Please consider up-voting, and feel free to click the 'follow' link to hear more stories from Drowning In Ink. You can also swing by my webpage, where you can see more pieces I have done, as well as links to my FaceBook and Instagram pages.

Much Love. xoxo

• Mike