Making Memories with Pet Art
Dog Tattoos Aren’t Just for Rebels Anymore
My dog, Goldie, is 15 years old, so I enjoy more than ever the pet art I have of her. I take great comfort in looking at the photographs of my little Papillon that hang around my house. The photographer captured the joy on her face in the park, at the beach, sitting on my lap—I will always treasure being reminded of those happy shared memories.
Think about creating keepsakes inspired by your own pets. You can have a permanent reminder of the fleeting joys of each phase of their precious lives with art that ranges from pet t-shirts to more permanent mementoes, like cat and dog tattoos.
Here are a few ideas to consider:
Fine Pet Art
People have always wanted artistic renderings of their pets. There are cave drawings dating back 25,000 years that show what many people believe to be domestic dogs. Ancient Egyptians carved pet art images into statues, gold bracelets, pendants and amulets made from soapstone.
At the William Secord Gallery in New York City you can buy pet art from the 18th and 19th centuries—paintings of those bygone pets now fetch up to $100,000 and sometimes more.
Consider having a portrait made of your pet. You’ll find talented portrait artists in most major cities who have a background in painting animals as well as people. You can even upload a photo of your pet and email it to an artist, who can then create custom pet art from a drawing or painting of your loved one.
Some collectors take it a step further and have bronze images made of their animals. Small original sculptures start at $1,000, but may cost upwards of $10,000 for a large piece from a well-known sculptor.
Cat and Dog Tattoos
While some people admire art on walls, other people want artwork on their bodies. In the past, if you had seen a girl with a cat tattoo, she may have looked odd, or, perhaps, a man with dog tattoos would look like an outlaw, but now they’re a sign of the times.
“Tattoos are an expression of someone’s inner soul,” says Joe Newsom of Skin City Tattoos in Tigard, Oregon. He has done a few hundred tattoos over the years commemorating people’s pets.
He doesn’t just ink a generic portrait-inspired cat tattoo, though—most of the requests have been for a tattoo of the animal’s name or a symbol, like a dog’s collar or ID tag. He’s done about a dozen pet-portrait jobs, but the cat or dog tattoos he’s done are always personalized—he’s done other pets, too.
When Danielle Silverstein’s tortoise died, she went to Newsom for a turtle tattoo. “My grandmother gave me Cutie Pie when I was five years old,” says Danielle. “I had her for 45 years.”
“When Danielle told me her story, I said, ‘We’ll make this tortoise the real deal,’” says Newsom. Silverstein’s tattoo shows a tortoise walking toward a strawberry, Cutie Pie’s favorite food. The Japanese character for “Grandmother” hovers in the background. Danielle was so pleased with the Cutie Pie tattoo, she later had a portrait of Hellon, her French Bulldog, tattooed on to her calf.
“Complete strangers stare at my leg,” Silverstein says. “I was at a dog show and must have been stopped by 150 people.” She says dog tattoos always inspires reactions.
Pet T-shirts
A cat tattoo is definitely permanent, so if you want a little less commitment to your pet art, think about pet t-shirts. You can use those piles of hair your dog sheds twice a year to make sweaters, scarves and mittens. Large, furry dogs with lots of soft undercoat, like collies or Samoyeds, are the best candidates for yarn making.
“It takes a lot of yarn to make a sweater,” warns fiber artist Elizabeth Knight, who has used her Papillon’s shed fur in some of her projects. She says if you’ve got small dogs like hers, or a longhaired cat, the fur can be woven with other fibers to make yarn.
Local spinners can make your fur into yarn. If you’re a dedicated do-it-yourselfer, there are directions on the Internet for spinning fur into a pet t-shirt. There is even a popular book called Knitting with Dog Hair by Kendall Crolius (St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997) to help you make those puppy sweaters and scarves a reality.
Plaster Paws
Not every piece of pet art has to be elaborate. Remember making a plaster cast of your hand for your mom when you were a little kid? You can buy kits to make plaster casts of your pet’s paw print. Take a cast of your pet’s paw the week you bring him home and you can have a loving reminder of your puppy’s first days.
Deborah Wood is the author of 11 books, including Help for Your Shy Dog: Turning Your Terrified Dog into a Terrific Pet. She is an award-winning columnist for The Oregonian newspaper. She lives in Oregon with three Papillion dogs and a cat. Her dogs compete in obedience trials and one works as a therapy dog, visiting children at a local hospital.