Stretch marks are no longer the only physical reminder of a child’s birth for some moms. While most mothers have pictures of their kids proudly displayed on a shelf, increasingly, portraits of children are turning up tattooed into the skin of moms and dads who want a permanent remembrance of their offspring.

"It’s super big right now," said Steve Lemak, the owner of The Quillian tattoo shop in Allentown, Pa.

Heather "Hezz" Findlay, a tattoo artist at Mind’s Eye Tattoo in Emmaus, said the shop does mom or dad tattoos three to four times a week and many are first-timers.

Having tattoos celebrating children also are less likely to be regretted, Findlay said. "We prefer to do tattoos for children rather than boyfriends or girlfriends," she says.

The most common tattoo is a child’s name, artists say, but baby footprints are a close second.

"Everyone gets kids’ names tattooed," said Allyn Mason of Al’s Gotham City Tattoos in Allentown, Pa., as he finished up a tattoo of two little Teddy bears and hearts for a mom with twins. "I recently did five kids’ names right down a woman’s leg."

Mason said he does a lot of footprint tattoos, which he copies right from the baby’s birth certificate so they are unique.

Tonya Barr recently got life-size handprints of Rylie, 3, and Jaden, 4, tattooed on her back.

"They’re everything to me, and they’re only little once," Barr said.

Barr was inspired when she saw Rylie playing with fingerpaints, so she had the children make their handprints in ink and took them to The Quillian.

Two hours later, she had the tattoo.

"I love it," she says. "Everyone who sees it thinks it’s neat."

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