Breastfeeding tattoo

[bowbohm]

Hello! Looking for ideas for breastfeeding tattoos. It has been the most empowering and rewarding part of becoming a mother and I want to honor it ideally as a half sleeve or upper arm piece. Very much into the styles liked the attached!

Ideas welcome as well as recommendations for artists in the London area (or southern England).

Thank you xx

OP if you really love the idea and you're 100% sure go for it. Ignore anyone who thinks the idea is 'naff', it's your body. I'd
much rather have a well done, unique tattoo that meant something to me like that, than the usual butterflies and lillies people tend to go for!

Crikey some harsh comments here

I like the middle one.

Sorry Babettescat I stole that term from another parenting forum. It is used to describe people who force the idea of breastfeeding down people's throats.

I am pro breastfeeding, I did it myself, but I just find the idea of a tattoo about it a bit meh.

Are you even allowed to get a tattoo while you are still breastfeeding?

If you are still breastfeeding, a good tattoo artist won't ink you.

personally i dont like them, but then i dont like a lot of things that people decide to do to their bodies. Its your body you can do what you like!

However..... on that note - i would recommend leaving it for a couple of years and see if you still want one, and if you do, then get it then - you dont need to do it right now - I had the idea for my last tattoo in my head for about 3 years, so when i got it, i knew i really wanted it

I have teenagers. Everything I do is, to some extent, embarrassing to them. A tattoo of me breastfeeding them would see me shunned entirely.

I just honestly don't think BF is that big a deal. I would judge anybody who values themselves by it enough to get it tattooed.

Fwiw. I bf, most of my friends did. Some didn't for their own reasons- but it's a natural function. Not something that I needed a medal for or that I'll dine out on for the next 30 years.

I agree with burnished and Troll

I would be interested to know whether those who think this tattoo is a great idea have older children/teenagers. DD is nearly 16 now and I don't really think back to when she was a baby, also she would curl up with embarrassment if I had a tattoo like that.

Like Troll I don't feel that being able to breastfeed is something I need to advertise to the whole world. And believe me, I felt I did deserve a medal at the time because I found it very hard to start with and was on the verge of giving up several times.

I think BF is a pretty big deal. To full term breastfeed I went through 3 bouts of mastitis, thrush, lip and tongue ties and over supply. Including deep enough cracks to require medical attention. So yes...to me continuing was an achievement and one I am proud of. Not everyone's journey is the same, which should be obvious tbh but people are very quick to dismiss each other.

I wouldn't get a tatt about it, and I wouldn't necessarily discuss it, but it was a 'big deal' to me.

And tbh, if my kids were embarrassed by breastfeeding I'd think I had done something wrong along the line. Besides, it is their mother's body...not theirs.

Two years ago, when I stopped bf DS, I would've considered getting one of these. I really struggled to bf him and had every problem going. It felt like a huge achievement.

Now, though, I'm so bloody glad I didn't! There are so many parenting challenges, and bf was really just a tiny part of my life. The way I fed my son is something that's just not that important to me any more. At the time it was all-encompassing. But now it's just one of those things.

If I'm having a conversation about bf with a bf mother I'll talk about how I struggled to feed DS and how we got through it. But otherwise it doesn't come up any more. At all. It's not some kind of badge of honour, and not important to who I am as a person overall.. so not something that needs commemorating on my skin.

OP, I'd give it a couple of years and see if you still feel the same. If you do,great, but you night not.

Also, if you have more children and have to ff them (can happen, it happened to me), that might change your outlook on bf tattoos as well.

How about a breast milk charm? I had a bead made when i was bfing DD1. I've never worn it but I'm glad i have it as a memento.

To the pp who said these breastfeeding tattoos are better (more meaningful?) than butterflies, lilies etc, I have a butterfly (humph ) but it is very meaningful to me - and not because I heart butterflies or anything. It represents something I won't go into on here.

Re the OP, I would probably wait a bit personally as I said up thread. Regardless though, I don't think it has to be as obvious as a big tattoo of a woman feeding her baby to mark the OP's pride in her choice to bf. If people always got tattoos of the actual thing they wanted to represent there would be some funny looking tattoos around !

That said if what she wants is a big tattoo of a woman feeding her baby, then obviously she should do whatever. I've seen far worse tattoos.

Runningupthathill has articulated far better than I have why I wouldn't have had that tattoo myself. Looking back it is such a small part of bringing up children. At the time each stage feels as if it lasts for ever - currently going through GCSE exam stress, but it soon passes and just becomes a distant memory.

I am not keen on BF charms either.

I work in a tattoo shop. I fully agree with most PPs in that you should wait a couple of years to make sure this is what you REALLY want.

With regards to being tattooed whilst breastfeeding, yes, a decent artist with any morals will turn you away. Although the risk of infection or contracting a blood borne pathogen SHOULD be small (very dependent on how scrupulous the artist is with hygiene), it's still significant enough for a tattooist to not want to take the risk.

I like the idea of a breastfeeding charm, which was mentioned upthread.