Read These Great Tattoo Stories! [PHOTOS]

You can win tickets to the Three Rivers Convention Center Tattoo Convention Sept. 26-28 plus VIP pre-show party passes by showing us your ink and telling us its story! We've had several submissions so far, check them out:

Shawn Flinders: My dad passed away four years ago this coming October. He died of alcoholism (and a broken heart). Two years prior to his death we made an agreement to stop drinking I would support him and he would support me. He lasted about two months and started up again. I stayed sober and continued to encourage him. He lost that battle but to this day I haven't drank and I just reached six years this past June. So blessed! The Phoenix represents rising from my addiction and making it through his.

Charles Totten: I have a tattoo of a Boston Terrier wearing a drill sergeant hat with an M-14 and a wrench crossed below it...it is a memorial for my dad...on the wrench has his initials and the word "sarge" on it because he had that engraved on all of his tools...also on the wrench has his date of birth and death instead of the wrench size and it has a waving American flag in the background.
The rifle signifies his time in the Marine Corps as scout/sniper
The wrench is because he was a mechanic as a civilian.
The Boston Terrier was his favorite dog and he always had them.
The drill sergeant hat signifies his 20 years as a drill sergeant in the ARMY.
The flag is because he was a true patriot.
I got this tattoo by Lon at Hoops in Kennewick a few months after my dad took his life while I was on vacation visiting my sister just over four years ago. Work by Lon at Hoops

Valerie Petrina Taylor: I found a pair of wings in a tattoo shop in Vegas 2009 and knew I wanted a memorial tattoo for my dad. In 2012 I was trying to find how to finish it and came across a Slovakian coin which was perfect since his grandparents are from there. I put my dad's dates in the middle of the coin to tie the whole thing together. [NO PHOTO]

Trisha Scott: This tat is for my first born grandchild Riley Douglas, named after his mother's dad who died when she was one. [NO PHOTO] Work by Randy Scott

Samantha Pierce: Shortly after turning 18 my mother and I got a matching family tattoo. It was an homage to her Grandma Lily, but after it was done we had a lot of "Like mother, like daughter." Work by Jerrett at Monarch Tattoo

Travis Hunt: I actually have 3 tats 1. paw 2. daughters name 3. background. Each one done on my birthday (which actually happens to be my artist's birthday as well. Timber is my oldest daughter. Work by Tim Flanagan at Parkway Tattoo