My Bad Allergic Reaction to my Heart Mom Tattoo!!!
When my youngest child was admitted to the Childen’s Hospital of Philadelphia with multiple congenital heart defects I knew some type of heart tattoo was in my future. Children with a CHD are given the name ‘Heart Warrior’ and mother’s of heart warriors are given the name ‘Heart Mom'. I couldn’t wait to get my heart mom tattoo!
But what should I get? It had to be beautiful! Where on my body would I get it? Nowhere too visible but somewhere easy to see.
Then one day, I look across the room that my son and three other heart warrior patients were and I see another heart mom. If her t-shirt with two jugs of milk across her chest wasn’t enough to get my attention, the tattoo I saw on her inner arm was! We started chit-chatting and I knew I had to ask her to show me the tattoo. It was then that I had found my heart tattoo. It was the most beautiful anatomical heart with Gustav Klimts’ mother child in the middle. The image of the mother with her young child resting his head across her bare chest was breathtaking. Then I thought, “Can I get the same exact tattoo as someone?? Is that breaking some tattoo code of ethics?” I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask, and she was delighted to say yes!
Over a year later, I finally made an appointment with the same tattoo artist who did her tattoo. Since he did such a great job, I thought it was only appropriate that he should do mine as well.
It was the night before I’d be getting my tattoo and I could barely sleep. Excited to be able to get the tattoo I’d been wanting for months, but nervous that it might be too big or be excruciatingly painful to get done. I watched countless youtube videos titled “Pros and Cons of inner arm tattoos”. There was a 50% chance I’d have to keep pausing the session due to extreme pain.
Fortunately, the tattoo wasn’t nearly as painful as I had expected. At one point I remember staring off at the ceiling while we were talking and forgetting I was even getting tattooed; that was until it was time for the shading. Thankfully, that didn’t last too long and I was on my way home with the most beautiful and meaningful tattoo.
And that’s when it started. I removed the bandage and tape. It was itchy around the tattoo but I assumed it was just my sweat and the tape stuck to my skin.
As the days progressed I broke out in full hives surrounding my tattoo. I couldn’t believe it. I was devastated that my tattoo might be damaged; a tattoo I’d been so excited about.
A trip to an urgent care and a decision to start topical steroids was made. At this point there was some redness and warmth under my arm so I started to panic that It was getting infected and my tattoo was days away from being ruined. Fortunately, some Motrin took care of that and with continued use of the topical steroids it seemed like I was finally in the clear. But then the peeling started. It was hard to tell how the tattoo was going to heal since it had been through hives, redness, and swelling surrounding it.
It’s been one week since I got my tattoo. I can happily say that things are improving and I hope by this time next week I will have a beautiful tattoo to show you once more! Until then, I’ll continue keeping it clean and moisturized!
So remember kids, if you have a sensitivity to bandaids, you probably have a sensitivity to all adhesives and you should just avoid them entirely. Until next time…
Be good. Be wild.
Xoxo Rachel