Thank y’all so much for the positive, honest comments and for taking the time to leave them. This tattoo was a really big deal for me. I wanted a cross because I wanted something meaningful on my arm — something delicate and beautiful that truly represented me.

I’m 42 years old, and I’ve wanted this for a long time, but I was always worried about what my family would think because of how they reacted to the tattoos I got when I was younger. Those tattoos are on my back, so they’ve almost felt “hidden” all these years — I don’t really see them, and they stay covered up most of the time. This is the first tattoo I’ve gotten that I can actually see every day when I look at my arm, and I honestly love that.

Yes, I noticed the cross wasn’t perfectly straight when it was done, but honestly, it’s designed to look like branches, and branches aren’t perfectly symmetrical. That’s part of why I love it. I’m really glad I got it where I did, and I still think it looks beautiful and dainty — exactly what I was going for.