The camping van
My grandfather was the man I consider the most powerful male role I could have ever had in my life. He was my “step” grandpa, but you wouldn’t have guessed it by the way he chose us as his own. I can confidently say he’s the reason for 99.9% of the values I follow now as an adult.
There’s multiple points to this tattoo that represent him, and I trusted my friend Braeden Kurzrock to combine them into one beautiful piece I cherish. The sunflowers represent my grandpa’s favorite flowers. The Polaroid shows my grandpa’s love for photography—when we were children, I swore he photographed everything back then. I have “glamour” shots for days (aka a feather boa, a beret, funky sunglasses, and my best plastic pink heels).
The mountains and tent show my grandpa’s love for the outdoors. One of his dreams was to rough-it camp in the Appalachian Mountains. And the main focal point of the tattoo would be the van—the camping van, the Purple People Eater. That’s what he took camping in the middle of nowhere or on a canal. He souped that bad boy up to adjust to his camping. He would also test out the most random hacks he could ever find in his hours of YouTube endeavors of other rough-it campers. He was always looking for the easiest and most compatible way to do it.
My grandpa was my beacon I held onto while I was pregnant with my son. He was the glue that held my family together, and his passing has impacted most of us in more ways than we can imagine.
I came to Braeden with all these memories, and when I say he over-exceeded what I could ever imagine, I mean it. Did I make him work harder that day? 100%. But in the end, we both were really happy with the outcome.