So I’ve wanted a wrist tattoo since college, but I’m glad I waited until yesterday. It has more meaning.

I was scrolling through my Instagram feed last month and saw a delicate geometric arm tattoo on a friend of a friend in NYC. Instantly, I knew I wanted the same artist for my tattoo. I started reading through the comments, and one of my BFFs commented saying that she wanted one from this artist as well. I commented that I was in, and I bought my ticket to New York to make it happen!

Turned out to be amazing timing, because I also got to be there for Sarah’s birthday party! So fun.

Back to the tat…Yesterday afternoon we took a car out to Brooklyn to Fleur Noire to meet Laura, our artist. She recently opened her shop in October. Super cute.
We had sent ideas via email, and Laura sent sketches back the day before. Emails were a bit confusing as I (Sarah) was emailing about my appointment with my friend Sarah as a referral from another friend Sarah. Seriously. She sent some sketches the day before, but we worked out the final details at the shop.

I knew that I wanted a tattoo that symbolized my new Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis and possible medical identification if I ever go down for the count. I also wanted it to represent the strength that I have over the dang thing. So we landed on the simple script (I like words.) with a dot representing a drop of blood, and the symbols representing that I’m greater than my highs and lows…in life and in blood sugars.

We had lunch right before the appointment, but my sugars were staying low. Nerves maybe? I brought some OJ and ended up drinking half the bottle before I was up.

Here’s me looking nervous as Laura prepped for tattoo time. Five minutes later I was thankful for the past year of needles and blood. I was prepared for it to hurt much worse. It felt more like stinging. I’ve had pod and dex changes that have been worse. But mine was also tiny. My friend Sarah braved through an entire side tattoo…about seven inches long.

And here’s the fresh tattoo. A bit red and the goosebumps are because it was freezing by the window where we took the photo. I’m curious to see how it heals this week. I’ve noticed overall that my cuts and bruises have been slower to heal since T1D. But I’m smoothing on my Hustle Butter like a champ.

Some of you might be wondering if there are any considerations for diabetics getting tattoos. I’m definitely not an expert but here’s what I’ve got:

• I asked my endo, and he said “It’s stupid, but you can do what you’d like.” I took that as approval when he didn’t have a good reason for the stupidity other than preference.
• I read that you should have a decently low A1C. I’m purposely not going to mention numbers here, because I’m not a doctor. Just what Google said.
• Took advice from T1D Instagram friends to take ibuprofen (or pain med without blood thinner) before the appointment. Also took the OJ.
• That’s really it.

I love it. Super glad it happened. And awesome that I got a tattoo with one of my BFFs in Brooklyn.