When my dear friend Mary Anne Shelton, passed away last year, her girlfriends and I decided to get a tattoo to remember her by. This humming bird design was found by someone, but I changed it substantially, smoothing out the lines and flow of the design, and adding the sphere, intended to portray an eclipsing sun, or moon, as Mary Anne's life was eclipsed. The lettering, "Memento Vivere" is latin for "A remembrance of life" and that was added to my tattoo, for another biker lady friend, Josie, who has been battling cancer for many years now. Over a dozen of her friends have tattooed these words on themselves in her honour. I have not heard form her in several months now, and I fear she is passed as well......
I had the tattoo done on my left shoulder, but decided to leave out the colour and just add black and grey shading instead. It looks beautiful. I am planning to add a subtle blue shading to the center of the circle, and leave the bird in black and white. The tattoo was done by Sean Cox at Millenium Tattoo in North Vancouver.
(this photo illustrates well, the long term damage that was done to my left shoulder in a motorcycle accident over 6 years ago. My tricep's nerves were badly damaged, and the muscle has never been able to grow back!)