The Tale of Two Bad Mice

Tattoo by Dora of Earthship Studios during 2016/2017.

This tattoo will always invoke strong emotions for me. Whenever I catch a glimpse of it in the shower, or when I wear a tank top I almost feel the need to speak to my little mice friends. These mice are not at all the two bad mice Beatrix Potter so lovingly wrote about in her children's stories and yet they are exactly them. 

When my mother was officially diagnosed with dementia and the last remaining shreds of her that I recognized started to fade away I wanted to capture her in her spirit animal, the english dormouse. Incredibly small, living in the country in fields of wild flowers,  these mice are regularly missed and no one knows but their snores are magical (listen here!). They remind me of my mother, sweet and many times overlooked and unnoticed despite their fabulousness. 

My mother has multiple masters degrees, she was a concert level musician, a preschool teacher and social worker later in life. She overcame many painful losses, horrible familial relationships (as reported by her) and most of all her own mental illness. She remains to be even in her dementia the kindest, sweetest, most funny and fascinating women I have ever known. She taught me the joy of wildflowers, edible violets, collecting local honey (before it was cool!), and baking break (also before it was cool!). 

She never made excuses for who she was or her journey and always sought to know more, to grow farther and to be a better version of where she came from. She taught me at a young age the importance of books and art, or making music and a creating in the world. I wanted a little mouse in the wild to represent her and those things. Dora, as always took it one step further and added a baby mouse so my mama mouse and I could be together, amongst the edible violets and buzzing queen bees, amongst the music of nature. And when I look at these mice I will always remember her sitting at her piano and playing the, "The Sun Will Come Out, Tomorrow" and asking me in her sweet voice to sing for her while no one was home, when it was her and I, in our field of violets.