“Appreciation” was the subject line of an email I received this morning from an unfamiliar email address.  Intrigued, I clicked on the email from “Jennifer”, as the name said.

The body of the email read,

“I was looking for Images of people with tattoos. For a project I am doing in school on discrimination on those with body art. I came across your photos and I was brought to tears. Never have I seen us with tattoos and different forms of body mod, shown is such a gentle way. I truly appreciate and enjoy your depictions of those with tattoos as gentle and loving parents which we all are.. Thank you.”

I had to share this.  I hope that the people who hire me to photograph them and their children and their art do feel that this is true of how I approach and see them.  Being stereotyped, misunderstood, assumed about, and otherwise thought about negatively by people who don’t even know you just plain sucks.  I’ve always been someone who aims to prove people wrong (some might call that rebellious, wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been called that!), and I hope that in doing that, if I can’t make them realize they’re wrong, maybe someone else will.

Thank you to all of my tattooed parents and parents to be.

What could be more perfect than this?