In my book Nine Days the main character Andy Qwinn gets a tattoo while she’s in Hawaii.  She goes to support a friend and ends up getting one herself.  It’s a purple heart with ocean waves crashing inside it.  Andy loves everything about the water from swimming in it on her school’s swim team to studying the animals who live in the ocean so she can protect them and their habitats as a marine biologist.  I got the same tattoo when I was first writing the book.  For Andy, the tattoo symbolizes freedom and the strength and courage to seize her freedom and allow her to be herself – which is something she can’t fully do at home.  I got the tattoo at a time when I needed to be reminded that I could be as strong and brave as Andy, that I’d already survived so much and that I could survive what was going on at the time as well.  A picture of this tattoo is on the back cover of the book (an on the title page of the ebook).  The circling seals on the front cover represent the two monk seals – Pil and Popo – in the book as well as her relationship with Kai (sorry, I can’t explain that last part.  You’ll have to read the book 😉 ).  When she goes with her friend to get his tattoo she agrees to get a henna one.  She gets the circling seals on her shoulder blade.

All the art work for Nine Days was done by Big Mike Cardenas, a tattoo artist at Clovis Ink in California.  He’s done both of my husband’s tats and my most recent two.