Grandfather’s words turn to ink [tattoo]. CONTRIBUTED BY Abbey Hagerstrom
I’ve never thought about getting a tattoo before; it just doesn’t interest me to have permanent ink on my body. However, I would absolutely get one if it had a good meaning behind it, probably something to do with my family or friends. That’s what I personally love about tattoos, is that some of them have deeper meaning than we think.
You never know what a tattoo could mean unless you ask, and it’s always so pleasing for me to listen to the stories behind some tattoos that people have. There have been numerous discussions between my dad’s side of the family about getting a certain matching tattoo for all of us, and I can give you a clue as to what it would be. If you’ve read my name on the byline of this article, you might have a good idea as to what we all agreed upon. Everyone pronounces my last name like the vegetable already, and we all think it would be funny and sweet to get a broccoli tattooed somewhere. Nevertheless, this story isn’t about me and my family.
I was walking around the Ram’s Den, and I caught a glimpse of a tattoo on the arm of a girl named Abbey Hagerstrom. Hagerstrom is a freshman nursing major, and she has other tattoos on her arm and ankle. The one I captured is on her left forearm, and it is a simple phrase that says “Love You Abbey Gramps,” in her grandfather’s handwriting.
Hagerstrom had actually shown the tattoo artist an old Christmas card her grandfather gave her a while back to model the tattoo after. Hagerstrom said that she had a bunch of cards from her grandfather collected at one point, and then she lost them. Before her grandfather passed, she saw him on his last day, and his final words to her were “I love you.” After that, she found the card somewhere, and told me that she knew she had to get her tattoo.
“To me, this tattoo means that my grandpa is always with me,” Hagerstrom said. “It reminds me of my last minutes with him, and I smile everytime I look at it.”
When she got it done, she said that she went in for just a consultation, but the artist told her that they could do it right then and there, so Hagerstrom got it done the same day.
Hagerstrom’s grandfather was the only other living relative on her father’s side of the family, so she was very close to him. He had been sick for the past 10 years or so prior to his passing, and was dealing with Type 2 Diabetes. When Hagerstrom got the tattoo done, she showed her dad the final product, and he loved it.
Hagerstrom went on to share more about her grandfather, and how he was the nicest and most empathetic person that she knew, but who also had bad hearing and yelled often. Hagerstrom couldn’t recall what the cause of his death actually was, but he passed at 70 years old, and her tattoo makes her remember him every day.