The best kind of family bonding

A few months ago I got a message from an old friend of mine. Her family would all be getting together this winter. Her mom and older brother still live here but she'd be coming in from Seattle and her younger brother would be in from Korea. I practically grew up with these guys. My sister & I went to school with them and they lived just down the street from our grandparents.

While they were all together they wanted to get together for a family portrait, but that's not all she wanted. During this visit they would all be getting their first tattoo. Matching family tattoos. She asked if I would document the occasion and I was more than happy to.

[Carol's wrist bird]

There was a little miscommunication and Dale (the oldest) had never intended to get a tattoo of anything ever. He did show up to watch but just the other three actually got the ink.

The tattoo artist asked everyone where they wanted theirs, and when Jan said her neck we all stopped what we were doing and said "your neck?" He said if you get a neck tattoo your street cred will go up about 20 points. I guess we all pictured it up front somewhere. Where she actually got it, on the back lower part of her neck, it's not as hard core looking as we thought but still pretty tough.

(The bird comes from the design on a necklace Jan's mom used to wear a lot when she was younger.)

The next week we were pounded with snow and ice so when we got together for the group session I thought it may not have mattered where we went because everything seemed to look the same and was equally dangerous to try and walk on. We had a good time though, and it warmed up a bit that day which I appreciated.

These four get very silly. I think most of the photos have some sort of funny face or light hearted posing going on. Then when we were done they couldn't help but indulge in a snowball fight.

Oh yeah, and here are the tattoos, almost all healed:

(tattoos were done at All American Tattoo in Florissant MO)