My chunky fairy tattoo and the meaning behind it

I've posted it on facebook and I've posted it on my Tumblr...but for those of you who haven't seen it, Nik's got a brand new tattoo. ;)

Tattoo is placed on my left shoulder, I plan to add more to it when $$$ allows

Saturday night, I joined some friends at a tattoo party. Now, let me just say this, I don't normally go to these parties. I'm always worried about cleanliness and needles. There is a shop in Michigan that I got a majority of my ink from and for a while I considered myself a bit of a "ink snob." But, since I had seen the work that the guy, Terry, did on Ryan, I had to have some done.

Originally, I had decided on getting the butterflies on my back extended. As I sat and thought about it some more, I decided I would get the chubby fairy that I had been thinking about for years. We skimmed through images on google and finally came across some hand drawn doodles by Lime Green Squid on Deviant Art. I was in love. Exactly what I was looking for!

Now, here's the story behind the tattoo, because all of my tats (well 3 out of 4) have a story behind them.

Growing up as a fat kid, I struggled with my self esteem. I  knew I was this intelligent person full of beauty and life and I had goals...but what good was all of that if people only concentrated on my fat outer shell? It has taken me years to accept the fact that being fat is only a descriptive term. Being fat doesn't take away from the fact that I am smart, beautiful, quirky and most importantly that I have a voice. It is simply a physical description.

This tattoo represents my journey through acceptance...not just the fat acceptance movement going on, but accepting myself as a whole. Throughout the years, I have grown into this beautiful woman (and I don't mean just physically). I have overcome so much and many times, have proven people wrong. My fairy, she represents that growth and acceptance.

I am definitely pleased with my little chunker. She's beautiful and inspires me. She is a constant reminder that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Thank you so much to Terry for making my vision come to life! If you are in the LA area, I definitely recommend hitting him up! He does EXCELLENT work!