Samantha Feil of Butler Township wanted to have tattoos like her older brother and sister.

“When I first told my brother (Ed) about it, he said, ‘No you should wait until you’re 21’ and I was like, ‘No I want it now,’” Feil said.

Feil, however, did get a tattoo at age 18. And, in fact, it was Ed who took her to get it done. The tattoo is of a Celtic cross.

“I knew I wanted a tattoo of the Celtic cross ever since my grandmother passed away,” Feil said. “The cross symbolizes her with me, and the circle around it has leaves, and each leaf represents one of my cousins.”

Feil is very close to her family and continued her Irish heritage motif by getting three four-leaf clovers, each one a little bigger than the first, to represent her siblings.

She knows that friends can be just as close, if not closer, than family. That’s why Feil took her best friend to get complementary tattoos for the friend’s birthday.

They each got stars and music notes; Feil, one music note and four stars, while her friend got one star and four notes to remind themselves and each other of their four years in chorus together and friendship.

Another tattoo, a fairy, sitting on a music and history book, is a direct representation of Feil’s love for reading.

“I’m very passionate about music and I’m very passionate about history,” Feil said.

“It’s funny because in her wings, it has the dates, December 1777, that’s whenever George Washington was in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and then the next one was July 1863 and that’s when the battle of Gettysburg happened. Because I’m sure a nerd,” she said.

Her latest tattoo, “Proverbs 31:25,” is on her wrist.

“It’s an inspiration to me to not worry about what tomorrow will bring and just be happy with life in the present,” she said.