Mom of four, Samm Davidson, never expected to discover the healing power of tattoos in her late 30’s. In an article for Scary Mommy, the writer chronicles her recent therapeutic journey by way of ink.

The former lawyer was no stranger to getting inked, as she had previously acquired three small “inconspicuous” tattoos. However, nearly 11 years after getting her last tattoo, she is boldly jumping back in – quickly gathering a myriad of new ink to honor her four children.

The writer’s recent tattoo endeavors started around June of 2023 when she decided to “dive headfirst into [her] tattoo era.” The mom ventured into the city, babysitter in tow as a pseudo “reverse chaperone” and visited @paulobozotattoo to get three fine-line tattoos.

The mother to four now dons an 11:11 tattoo in honor of her daughters’ birth date. Davidson cites 11:11 as being her angel number, as she has seen it continuously since the day of her daughters birth. She also attributes each of the ones as representations for each of her kids.

Davidson also collected a squiggly line on her forearm, an allusion to the vein in one of her daughter’s eyes, as well as a bushel of baby’s breath on the back of her arm. The baby’s breath acts as a symbol of Davidson experience of moving through the newborn stage with each of her children. She mentions how it was “excruciatingly” difficult for her to move past that particular phase in her kids’ lives. Davidson mentions that this is “a way to carry my baby’s breath around with me until the end of time.” As the passionate mother grapples with the fleeting nature of her children’s youth, she attributes her recent foray into the tattoo world as her way of dealing with the “emotional mom stuff” and how she will get through the realization that she won’t be having any more children.

The new tattoo collector was formerly rather cautious in her ideology surrounding tattoos. Worried by all the textbook stigmatizations such as judgement from older generations, and and the myth that tattoos age poorly, Davidson has decided to forgo overthinking things and to make decisions based on what moves her in the moment.

Davidson currently has six more tattoo appointments currently booked, and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Proving to the masses, that it’s never too late to enter your ‘tattoo era’.