I'm so sorry for your loss and all of our losses. You do whatever make you feel better and helps you remember your dear husband. My wife passed about 9 months ago from breast cancer. We were avid motorcycle riders. She rode with me and didn't have one of her own because in 2006 she had a stroke and was too weak on her right side to stand one up. We loved to go to Daytona for bike week and one year we got tattoos. When she passed I had the original artist put the same tattoo on me with an added pink ribbon for breast cancer. Also my wife had signed a picture for me when we were dating and I had the artist copy her signature below the tattoo. It's like she is with me all the time. You take care and whatever you do will be right for you.

I forgot to say that the tattoo I got was the one she had on her back. We had taken pictures after the originals were done.

I don't think there are any wrong answers. It is what is most comforting and feels best for yourself. If way down the road lets say you have another relationship (and that's not impossible) and you have this tattoo, well then so be it. Nothing wrong with an emotional expression of devotion and commitment. Makes no difference of what anybodies opinion of tattoos is.

I've thought about getting a tattoo also. My husband and I talked about getting them but never got around to doing it. What is a memorial tattoo? I think that we have to do whatever it takes to get us through this time in our lives. No one knows what it's like except us.

In my opinion a memmorial tattoo is something that you liked mixed with something your husband/wife like mixed. So lets say I get a red rose (because I like red roses) with say a sword going though it ( he loved swords). Now, on the tattoo you could either put your husband or wifes name in it and either the date you met or the date you got married. That is my idea of a memmorial tattoo.

Any subsequent relationship would have to be with someone that accepted that you had a life before them, so I don't see that as a concern in your decision. I remarried and my husband is a widower, and we have both accepted that we weren't the first and that we are not in competition with our lost spouses. I have a past and so do you, and anyone coming into your life would have to accept that fact.

I am not the tattoo type - I just know how I am about art work - I get bored with it after awhile and have to change what is hanging on the walls, so I know a permanent piece of art like a tattoo would not be for me. Instead, I had a family ring made with my birthstone, Cliff's, and our sons - I never get tired of jewelry! Anyway, I still wear my family ring, and my new husband is not at all threatened by that. It gives me comfort, and it is my way of honoring and remembering my husband.

We are the keepers of our spouses' legacies. However you wish to do that is entirely up to you. If you feel it honors him and brings you comfort, then go for it.

Love and Hugs,
Martha

I am getting a tattoo scene in color, so it will be several sittings. I have never had a tattoo, but have wanted one and now I have an art idea that I love and am starting the dragonfly and the pocket watch part of this on July 6th. My husband always had my back, he was my biggest supporter, so my back will have a piece similar to the somewhat Celtic goddess artwork done by Sharon George called the Temple.
I am really looking forward to it.
Hope you will enjoy yours forever.
la raison pour etre vivant