24 • SKIN DEEP MAGAZINEwhat’s in
a name?
Why do we get tattoos to
represent the people in our lives?T
his time last year, as soon as I found out that I was pregnant, I immedi-
ately started to daydream about getting that eventual tattoo to mark the
birth of my son. How I would choose to represent him was an easy de-
cision—I loved the simplicity of name tattoos and knew that his simple
five-letter name would make a great statement piece one day. Now, almost exactly
365 days later, I sit here and run my fingers over the right side of my neck. The word
‘Jaxon’ has been permanently etched into my skin by one of my favourite tattoo-
ists in the world, hand-poke artist Mike Love from Leicester. Perfectly healed, jet-
black and created in Mike’s unique graffiti-inspired lettering-style, it took a couple
of hours to complete and it truly was a wonderful way to mark the arrival of my newWords: Rebecca Givens • Images: Paul Whysall (@justpaulyphoto)