I saw this on Tumblr a while ago and fell in love with it. Self belief is something I really struggle with and at the time I was really down about not feeling good enough so it stood out. 

I started to think about having a tattoo related to this and came up with a rough idea of having a tree with a broken branch and a bird in flight above it. I want it all black (silhouette) coming from the side of my ribs up  towards inside of my shoulder blades? does that make sense to anyone else?

Anyway. 

Fast forward a few weeks to my birthday and my mum said I'm going to send your birthday present in the post make sure you're in and I want your honest opinion? Right, ok! 

When it arrived I was excited to see what she had sent me... Take a look!

She had painted me her interpretation of my idea (using acrylics) and I absolutely love it! I'm so proud of my mum because she only recently started to paint (since joining as class) and I think she has a real talent for  it.  It went up on our wall within hours and I'm genuinely impressed with what she came up with. It's beautiful, and not only does it mean a lot because she painted it but also the sentiment behind it. Part of me thinks she did it to try and put me off getting it as a tattoo, and to be fair it has stalled my plans. Will it put me off completely? probably not! (Sorry Mum) 

My tattoo is going to be a gift to myself, and I feel like it owe it to all the times I've told myself I wasn't good enough/can't do something because I'm scared of failing etc. 

So from the bottom of my heart, Mum. Thank You. I love you, I love this painting and I love the quote that inspired it all. 

Thank you for reading.