Mums strange lie

Me too. The false memories people are writing about are a bit different. The Swan thing could have been a one off dream and the cot death and choking child actually happened and the person was told about it and created a memory. OP's story is an ongoing thing where the OP remembers her mum saying it was just drawings on different occasions. Then later denying it. Then getting tattoos like it.

I believe you OP.

OP I’m not trying to just go against the grain but you were a child. Children misunderstand things/make things up all the time. You may have just convinced yourself of all of this and I don’t really get why everyone is so sure your young child’s memory is absolutely definitely what happened.

Yes, exactly. I also have a vivid memory from early childhood, a rather more horrible one, of the woman next door losing a baby to cot death, and running in screaming for my mum. I remember her nylon housecoat, the fact that she was barefoot, what the baby was wrapped in, that my mother was peeling potatoes at the sink. Only this all happened before I was born, too! A friend of mine also ‘remembers’ a cousin choking to death on an orange segment at a birthday party in his house, even though he was out at a sports practice the entire time.

Or a psychotic/delirious event, occurring 'naturally' (not induced) and these marks still mean something to her

This is quite a sensible possibility, which I hadn't considered.

I'm curious about @PyongyangKipperbang's "thing"!

I do agree childhood memories can get distorted. I'm not sure a seven-year-old would mistake a dream/fantasy for reality, to the point where they constructed memories of asking for conformation and being given a dismissive explanation. I have very few memories, though, and have blanked out nearly all the trauma so can't speak from experience.

Can you draw them and share them here? May offer some insight.

My first thought was markings for surgery. Or some kind of cult.

How strange and confusing for you, OP

I have an incredibly vivid memory from my parents’ wedding day when I was about three of being chased by a swan. I can, 33 years later, describe to you the garden I ran through and my mum coming after me and shooing it away and grabbing me by the wrist. It’s my biggest memory of that whole day, everything else is quite fuzzy. I would tell her this story and she’d say it’s never happened and I didn’t believe her for years because I KNEW that swan chased me.

My parents got married before I was born. Absolutely none of it was true but it’s still in my head as a memory.

My first thought was it sounds like the sort of markings you get during a plastic surgery consultation.

Maybe some trauma surrounding her self image and the tattoos are her way of coping with it - similar to the semi colon tattoos some people with depression get.

What age is your mum? Or age range?

I remember a "thing" when I was younger that may tie in with this and I am early 50's

It’s only the OP’s interpretation that the new tattoos bear any relationship to whatever she believes she saw on her mother’s body as a child, though. And again her interpretation that her mother looked ‘upset and guilty’ when the OP saw her arrow wrist tattoo. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. If the tattoo was in any way secret, or something she didn’t want the OP to see, she would have had it inked elsewhere, not on a part of her body everyone sees all the time unless you regularly wear sleeves down to the knuckle.

The line tattoo on her arm is new? Does she always cover her arms?

It seems strange that she's had tattoos done, reminiscent of a distressing event. There could have been drink/drugs involved, and she got upset when she'd sobered up and saw the pen marks. Or a psychotic/delirious event, occurring 'naturally' (not induced) and these marks still mean something to her (if she's remained prone to mental health episodes).
I'm sorry you experienced this, it's little wonder it has stuck with you. For your own emotional wellbeing though, I think you should try to accept it isn't something she's ever going to explain.
Edited to say I agree with others pointing out that time changes memories, often significantly. It's also worth noting that we tend to suffer more in imagination than in reality - you've ruminated and worried over the years about something that could've just been a silly drunken one off event for your Mum.

Tell her you're basically traumatised by what you saw and you don't understand the tattoos.

No, don't do this. It's unfair, selfish and potentially cruel.

I understand what you saw when you were a child was frightening and that you're worried about your mum, puzzled by the mystery, but this isn't about you and it's none of your business - regardless of what you witnessed when you were young.

It's her story to tell, her business and you need to respect that. She'll tell if a) she wants to and b) she's ready.

Don't subvert her theorised trauma and make it yours. Respect her privacy - you're not entitled to know everything about her. She'll value your respext & discretion.

Furthermore, if there is trauma involved for her then prying can do more harm than good. Attempting to make her your trauma yours could be very damaging to her.

If you want someone to open up to you, you make it safe for them to do so and pressure doesn't make for a safe environment.

I've been to many life drawing classes and never has the model been drawn on

I think you need to make your peace with the possibility it’s a false memory, or that you were a young child who misinterpreted what she saw, and that in either case your mother has made it clear she doesn’t want to discuss it. Linking tattoos done decades later is you making a narrative where none may exist.

I've done life drawing classes a few times too and have never come across a life model being drawn on. That would be so disrespectful to the model.

I also think plastic surgery/ radiotherapy drawings are a possibility but not as you described "all over" like that.

Could you be misremembering? Maybe there were one or two lines and arrows but your memory is telling you there were more?

I'd agree with PP.
ASK your mum. Tell her you're basically traumatised by what you saw and you don't understand the tattoos.

Nobody draws all over your body in a life drawing class! That's just absolutely ridiculous. What kind of class would it be where a naked model's was drawn all over by the students in the class? You would get every pervert in the county there.

Where had she been to come back from?
You were very young so who was looking after you?

Did you ask her about the tattoos?

I googled it and it suggests some form of witchcraft.

Do you know much about your mum's younger days - was she alternative?

I wonder whether because you were little and the marks were frightening, and distressing for your Mum, that your mind made more of them, eg they didn’t cover her body but they became “bigger” in your head ? But whatever happened I don’t think you imagined the whole thing. It’s really strange and upsetting, and the tattoos are even more strange. Are you saying your Mum has only just had these lines and arrow tattoos ? Perhaps she was assaulted, and has now had the tattoos as a way of processing it , reclaiming her skin. Only your Mum can tell you, so you need to find a way to get her to explain. Perhaps ask her to write it in a letter so that she doesn’t have to explain out loud ?

I have no idea what the initial incident was about, but I don't doubt your memory and am inclined to agree that her tattoos are her way of making peace with whatever happened.

Her discomfort when you saw them is because she knows that you are linking her tattoo with your memory and that has now sort of affirmed that she was hiding something from you.

I think you have the right to gently approach this again with her, but she may just not want to disclose - which is her right.

Have been to a lot of life drawing classes and have never come a
ccross this.

Honestly. Ask her about it