Once, I Was 25 - A Memory in Earrings

May 10, 2026

I was sorting through a box of old photos earlier this week. Most were from my early days in Hawaii, some from when I was a new mom, and others from college. Now 58, seeing my younger self sometimes feels a little bittersweet. There’s a freedom in youth, just like there’s a freedom in aging. Different, but one not better than the other.

Later that day, I sat down at my bench, and this pair of earrings formed from one of those early memories.

The amethyst crystals, agate, chalcedony rose, and dark oxidized silver have a raw, sculptural edge that immediately took me back to my 25-year-old self on the day I was trying to get pumped up for my very first tattoo.

Now, this was long before every third person had a tattoo. 

I was sitting in my car with my boyfriend at the time, parked outside the tattoo shop, listening to Ministry (loudly) and trying to feel braver than I probably was.

This story really sounds too good to be true, but we walked into the shop and I was clearly out of my element. Several bikers and their girlfriends were sitting around on couches in the middle of this dimly lit room, and one guy was wrapped in bandages from head to toe. Seriously, mummy style. 

As I sat in the chair, surrounded by the tools of my tattoo artist’s trade and trying not to stare at mummy man, I noticed a picture of Axl Rose on the wall next to me. Apparently, he had sat in the same chair. The tattoo artist was hairy, big, and quite intimidating.

As he worked on my tattoo, a female tattoo artist kept peering at me. I was finally getting comfortable with my own tattoo artist, but she was terrifying. Like one of those girls I’d pass after school, the kind you didn’t dare look at too long in case they followed you home and kicked your ass.

I sat still and quiet for an hour.

Then finally, she came closer and said, “Nice, honey,” and took out a pack of cigarettes.

I have no idea why that moment has stayed with me so clearly, but it has. The music, the room, the bikers on the couches, the bandaged mummy man, the picture of Axl Rose, the smoke, the feeling of trying to look like I belonged somewhere I absolutely did not.

But honestly, it's a memory I love.

The tattoo was meant to remind me one day, when I was my mother’s age with grown children, that once, I was 25.

And here I am now, with grown children, making jewelry that sometimes still reaches back and taps that younger version of me on the shoulder.

These earrings have that same feeling to me. A little softness tucked inside the bold exterior. That young, uncertain kind of bravery, when you’re still figuring out who you are but walking in anyway.

They’re mismatched, but the same length. Three different mineral specimens brought together through color, texture, and oxidized silver. Each side has its own personality, but they still feel connected.

Kind of like the versions of ourselves we carry around. The soft ones, the brave ones, the awkward ones, the ones trying to look cooler than they feel, and the ones who look back years later and smile.

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