What’s been going on.

Hey there crew.

I haven’t been on here in a while, sorry about that. Things have been kind of totally insane lately. I saw that I have lots of messages in my inbox, I’ll get back to those ASAP. Sorry for the delay.

I guess the most fun news is that I finally finished my tattoo!

Here’s a fun little explanation of it:

The Puzzle Piece: the puzzle piece represents Autism. As many of you know, Autism is a huge part of my life. I’ve pretty much dedicated my life to learning about Autism and to the many people with Autism who are important to me.

Bardet- Beidel Symbol: the little symbol in the middle of the puzzle piece represents Bardet- Beidel Syndrome (BBS). BBS is another huge part of my life. I’m sure you’ve all heard me talk about Liam, well Liam has BBS so does his sister, Kaitlyn. BBS is something I’ve loved learning about since Liam and Kaitlyn became part of my life and learning about it is something that is extremely important to me. As are Kaitlyn and Liam.

The words: “Different, not less” is a sentence that has been very important to me for many years now. Through my involvement in the Special Needs community I have learned that different truly isn’t less. It’s something I hold very dear to my heart.

The Braille: above the puzzle piece is the word ‘Different,’ in Braille. I think that this part is truly one of the most special parts of my tattoo, it represents a couple of things. Part of BBS is vision loss, by the time a person with BBS reaches the age of about 15 they are legally blind. So of course, Braille will become an important part of their life as they grow. Secondly, the Braille represents a memory to Brittany Garton, a very important person To me who passed away this summer. Brittany was blind and taught me more about being blind and living with an intellectual disAbility than I ever thought was possible.

Not less: the ‘not less’ portion of the writing is a mash- up of some of the handwriting of some of the different kids/adults I support who have Special Needs.

So that’s the tattoo. I actually plan on adding a little more to it over the next couple of weeks and then it’ll actually be completely finished.

I’m learning Braille right now so that’s been fun. It’s hard but really interesting.

Tagged: Autism, Autism Tattoo, Blindness, Braille, Vision Loss