Dogs, ink

A few more dog-inspired tattoos have made their way into my inbox from readers who enjoyed our story "Indelible Dogs" (BARk, March/April 2008) for very personal reasons. The Rhodesian Ridgeback (upper left) belongs to Deborah Rocco. “My husband and I are owned by five of these wonderful creatures,” Rocco writes. Competitors in the show ring and on the lure course, “I just can’t imagine my life without them.”

Molly Lauroesch’s red merle Australian shepherds, Sydney and Charlie, are memorialized in her tattoo.

Lya Ashley of Woodville, Texas, ran a rescue for years in Florida. To commemorate her work, she had pawprints tattooed on her wrist with the Japanese characters for dog on her outer wrist (upper right) and for friend on her inner wrist. About the turquoise tattoos (lower left), she writes, "I had a dream of a dog walking through a puddle, the paw prints lifted the water and made water paw prints."

Jamie Muston-Townsend recently got a tattoo of her Irish Setter, Finney. The six paw prints on the bandana represent all the cats (past and present) she and her husband have had.