Special Remember & Hope Tattoos

First, the quick info bit - this is a commemorative tattoo that I'm releasing for a few days only in recognition of Sept.11. The tattoos are "freebies" - tho I don't like that term applied to this.

They are up in my shop for the taking and also on SLBoutique here.

Now the long story part:
Last night I was working on drawing (with real pen and paper) some tattoos while the TV played in the background. The tattoo subject matter was skulls and flames and stuff. Kinda dark stuff. Lots of September 11th stuff was on TV last night and I couldn't help watching some of it. And it felt wrong to be drawing skulls.

I messed around with a few tattoo designs of something heart related and something related to 9-11. Some way to do something meaningful to the moment.

But last night I put my pen down and wondered if people would think I was trying to exploit the event. Would people recognize this as a thoughtful tattoo or just see it as a blatant grab at attention? And did I even have the right to do something like this? Me, who lost no one in those horrific events. So I stopped.

But this morning I couldn't get the idea out of my head. I read blog stories about the Towers, looked at pictures in the NYTimes and I just had to create something.

So I started with a classic tattoo design and recolored it, and wrote "remember" on it. Then I decided I also needed one with hope written on it.

While I created these for myself for Sept 11, I hope they will serve as to commemorate other horrific events in peoples' lives. As a small reminder of events that have passed, but that we carry with us every day.

I am not trying to be political. I am not trying to exploit our heroes and victims. Rather, I just needed some cathartic relief and I created this and I share it with you.

*edit* I do hope this is done in the right spirit (as is my intention). I'd love comments here with
your thoughts.