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The pain of a miscarriage stays with you. From the moment I found out I was pregnant for the first time, I felt relief in knowing that, for 9 months, my little one would always be with me. When I lost that little life I’d imagined, I felt so alone. It’s no wonder, then, that miscarriage tattoos, which are equally permanent, are so popular. Here are miscarriage memorial tattoo ideas for mom.
These miscarriage tattoo designs are based on ideas from our own readers. We’ll show you their photos and tell you their stories, including photos of tattoos that represent all different types of miscarriage. Because community is powerful, and memorializing a loss through tattoo artistry can be so meaningful.
Plus, there’s too much silence about miscarriages. So if people are comfortable displaying their miscarriages and pregnancy losses on their bodies for the world to see, kudos to them for opening that conversation.
What is a Miscarriage Tattoo?
Tattoos are super personal–after all, it’s something that you’ve chosen to have on your body permanently. Many women who experience miscarriage feel a kind of loss that’s hard to explain.
A miscarriage tattoo is a physical representation the loss the mom experienced. Having a physical symbol of such an abstract concept can be extremely healing during such a painful time.
Miscarriage tattoo designs vary. Some symbolically represent losing a child (like a flower or bird). Others show the pain of losing a baby a literal form, like with a footprint, date, or name.
Obviously, dads can have miscarriage tattoos, too, although we are focusing on miscarriage tattoos for moms here.
A miscarriage tattoo can be an intimate and personal way to keep your child with you forever.
Miscarriage Tattoo Ideas
We’ve compiled many miscarriage tattoos from mamas here at Undefining Motherhood. They are as unique as they are beautiful.
We’ve divided them by the type of imagery they use, so if you know what kind of miscarriage tattoo you want, you can scroll straight to that section.
Many of them have also been customized over time. A tattoo with hearts might lead a mom to add another heart to the design after subsequent losses. Or parents may choose to add a rainbow to their tattoo to honor babies that are conceived after a loss. (Rainbow babies are babies born following loss like miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss.)
Flowers
Flowers are a common gift for miscarriage, not just because they’re beautiful, but because they hold tremendous symbolism about both life and death. These miscarriage memorial tattoos take that symbolism seriously, and they’re beautifully meaningful.
Rachel’s Forget-Me-Nots
Rachel chose to have these gorgeous forget-me-nots inked onto her wrist as a reminder of the two babies she and her husband lost. Rachel “felt the flowers’ symbolism was perfect for [her] babies and the colors are for the months [she] lost her angels.”
She notes that, surprisingly, her tattoo artist added the two extra little buds at the top of the stem not knowing that she had lost two other babies before she met her husband.
What a lovely way to commemorate all of Rachel’s losses.
Charissa’s Bouquet of Loss and Hope
When Charissa thought about choosing a miscarriage tattoo, she knew that she wanted a lot of floral symbolism to represent her losses. She chose:
- A marigold for her first baby, who was due in October 2018. The marigold represents passion and is associated with a brave and courageous lion.
- Honeysuckle for her daughter Persephone, who was due in June 2019. Honeysuckle is a symbol for everlasting bond, unbreakable love, gratitude, and appreciation.
- Narcissus (daffodil) for a little one taken too soon and due on Christmas day 2019. Daffodils represent hope and rebirth. With this loss, Charissa was given new hope after being finally referred to a fertility specialist.
Charissa and her husband are finally pregnant with their rainbow baby, a girl due in early April. As terrible as these losses were, Charissa writes that she is, “incredibly grateful for what they have taught me, and how they’ve given me a renewed sense of appreciation for this current pregnancy.”
Miscarriage Memorial Tattoos of Nature
Many parents choose birds and animals to represent their losses, often citing a connection they feel between their lost children and the natural world around them. In this section, we’ll take a look at miscarriage memorial tattoos that incorporate nature, such as animals (like butterflies and birds), and celestial bodies such as the moon and stars.
Grace’s Mama Bear
This beautifully colorful tattoo is representative of mama bear Grace and her butterflies, which represent her babies in heaven. Grace will add four more butterflies, as she has lost four more babes since she got the tattoo
Christine and Clara’s Birds
According to Christine, these three birds on a branch are for her living son, herself, and her husband. The four birds flying away represent their losses. Just like Grace, she needs to add two more for more recent losses.
Clara chose a similar motif to Christine’s. Clara, her husband, and her living daughter are on the branch, and the birds flying away represent the pregnancies lost to miscarriage. The tiny bird on the left is representative of an early chemical pregnancy.
Clara writes that she initially didn’t include it because a chemical loss occurs so early in pregnancy, and she didn’t feel like it counted. But when she had the other birds added, she decided that it needed to be there as part of her journey.
Note: At Undefining Motherhood, we believe all losses count. Please don’t compare your grief.
Megan’s Moon and Stars
Megan’s photo of her tattoos includes bruising from tests because, as she notes, “What woman going through recurrent pregnancy loss doesn’t have a ton of blood work regularly?”
There has always been a lot of symbolism around the moon and stars in Megan’s life.
“My mom always told me she loved me to the moon and back. We have this theme in my three-year-old’s bedroom. My dad always told me during deployments that no matter where we were in the world we could always look at the same moon and be connected.”
So when Megan had three first-trimester miscarriages, she was naturally drawn to the stars– “trying to find comfort by looking into the night sky.”
She got this tattoo to symbolize those losses and plans to update it to include a star for her son Theo, who was born stillborn on August 29, 2019.
Footprints
Mothers who lose their beloved little ones early often get symbolic miscarriage tattoos because they have so few physical representations of their children.
But some mothers actually have remembrance items like footprints or handprints. Many choose to keep them or make them into artwork.
Now, many also turn them into beautiful stillbirth or miscarriage memorial tattoos.
Chelsea’s Footprints and Hearts After D&C and D&E
After going through D&C and D&E, Chelsea decided to get a memorial tattoo that represented all her babies–both those not with her and her living children.
The colored hearts are her living children (with their birthstone colors), and the footprints are the actual footprints her doctor was able to get after her procedures. The black hearts are for babies she was unable to get footprints for.
More Little Footprints
The footprint is a popular and lovely way to memorialize a lost child. As with Chelsea’s babies’ footprints, these footprints were taken at the hospital and inked onto the mother so mom and baby can be together.
Paula
Paula had six miscarriages in total. The footprints are of her boys–Alex, who was born sleeping at 20 weeks and Harry, who was born sleeping at 21 weeks.
Paula explains, “their hand and footprints were taken in the hospital and put in a memory book. I traced them and had them tattooed at the base of my neck. There are six individual prints for the six losses.”
Kerry
This little footprint belongs to Kerry’s son, Lucas Kevin Jacson, who was born sleeping at 22 weeks.
Miscarriage Tattoo Quotes
Many loss moms want to represent their experiences through a quote, which is another common type of miscarriage memorial tattoo.
Here are some of our favorite quotes for miscarriage tattoos.
“Too beautiful for earth.”
“Never in my arms; always in my heart.”
“Always on my mind; forever in my heart.”
“I carry you in my heart”
“I will carry you.”
“Once you are real, you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
Should I Get a Miscarriage Tattoo?
Many women (like those above) find comfort and even hope in memorializing loss through body art like tattoos, and we say more power to them!
However, getting permanent ink is a deeply personal experience. Unless you have money for tattoo removal (which can be costly and sometimes even painful), it is an experience that will be inscribed on your body forever.
That being said, we can’t make the choice for you. If you feel drawn to getting a miscarriage memorial tattoo, definitely consider your options and do your homework!
Find a tattoo artist on Instagram whose work you admire and/or who has done miscarriage memorial tattoos before. Make sure you connect with your artist and trust their work.
We do love the mamas who reached out and shared their stories and tattoos with us, and who have found so much comfort in these beautifully designed miscarriage tattoo ideas!
However you choose to memorialize your loss, you know how to choose what is right for you.
Did you choose to get a miscarriage memorial tattoo? Tell us about it in the comments!
Other Articles About Miscarriage
- Coping with miscarriage grief
- What to expect when you miscarry
- After miscarriage, what to expect
- Miscarriage books
- Success after recurrent miscarriage
- Recurrent miscarriage testing
- Katy’s blighted ovum story
- Miscarriage quotes
Posts About Providing Miscarriage Support
- What to say to someone who had a miscarriage
- How to support someone after miscarriage
- Why you shouldn’t expect your friend to attend a baby shower after miscarriage
Miscarriage Gifts
Katy Huie Harrison, PhD, is an author, mom, recurrent miscarriage survivor, & owner of Undefining Motherhood. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, 2 children (Jack & Branham), and dog (Charlotte). She believes our society puts too many expectations on women that make womanhood and motherhood restrictive. Her goal is to shift the paradigm about what it means to be a woman and mother, giving all women a greater sense of agency over their own lives. You can find Katy and her work featured in places like CNN’s Headline News, Romper, Scary Mommy, Demeter Press’s Motherhood and Social Exclusion, & more.
