Just as promised, Founder and Owner of Tattumony, Catherines, ink testimony. It is noon and Im about to take my second dose of Lithium today, tonight I will take two more. I am trying very hard to stay on course...this time...by taking it consistently and not stopping. Ill start to feel better and believe that I dont need it. Want to do it without it. Believing that I can. I forget that within days, because of my bipolar, the rug of my world is pulled out from underneath me. I have done this over and over for the past year. I have clear memories of hurting myself in early elementary school. I have memories that haunt me as a little girl doing terrible things to myself and always explaining it away as a fall from a bike or from my tree house. At age 13, I added bulimia and my cutting became more sophisticated. By 15, for the next year, I saw and heard two demons living in my bed room. Everything about them was real to me. By 16 I was a heavy binge drinker, trying to drink the freezing fear away that I had when I stepped into my room, had straight Fs in school and attempted suicide. I didnt want to die, I just wanted the chaos to stop. I attempted college and have been through too many low paying jobs to count. Doing extremely well to start then my anxiety and convincing bad thoughts just stopped me from returning without explanation. I became a mother to three beautiful children that I adore but my multiple periods of anorexia, depression and mood swings absolutely have affected them. Two years ago, at 58 and just over 100 lbs I was tired of being tired. I was exhausted over how much work I believed that my life was. When my mom passed away, I gave my life to Christ and instantly began to incorporate prayer and faith into my life and into my ink. I can still remember the day that I scribbled the words Tattoo Testimony, which became Tattumony, on the back of an old receipt. I became connected to a psychiatrist that I trust and I thank a loving and faithful friend who will take the bullet by calling me daily to remind me to take it my medication. He always knows when I have stopped and is willing to take on my aggressive responses to his kindness. My meds dont make my life perfect, but they do allow me to see so many new colors. To experience laughter, joy and even peace. They allow me to be able to just slow down my thoughts and feel what I believe to be as normal. Working on Tattumony has allowed me to find healing...Tattumony is here for several reasons, one of which is for a family member that I lost to suicide over 15 years ago. He struggled with paranoid schizophrenia. I loved him and miss him so much, but his struggles were kept secret even after his death as people around him were scared that his mental illness would be a reflection on them. Because of that secret...I didnt get to say good bye. My father struggled with severe mental illness for years before his death. His extreme behavior was public and I was everything from his daily support to his worse enemy. Tattumony is here for me. To remind me when I look at the ink on my arm, the ink on the shirts that my journey has just begun. Tattumony is for you to find the same. So here I am..exposing my heart on my sleeve hoping that someone else can find healing through Tattumony. It is time that we talk about it. Mental illness isnt just a diagnosis for our homeless. We are mothers, fathers, sisters. We are in PTO meetings, CEOs, answering the phones in your office and hanging with you during the super bowl game. I am a mother, a sister and a friend. I work full time while launching this company that I am so proud of. I mow my grass and I pay my taxes and I do this while I am bipolar, and recovering from a 32 year eating disorder. So see, its ok. Tattumony is about my love for Christ, my love for ink, my love for the art of tattoos, my love for the testimonies behind mine and everyones ink. Tattumony is about incorporating all of those passions into a company and shirts that allow us to encourage, challenge and start talking about this. These shirts were each given carefully thought out testimonies of their own that I know will touch so many of our lives. These shirts are meant to start the conversation. They are meant to encourage and to engage our ink passion with our life passion. With your support, your love, your faith...Tattumony can make a difference and I am not going anywhere. Thank you
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 18:04:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015