76-year-old ALS patient finally gets tattoo

A 76-year-old ALS patient decided it was time to get her first tattoo. Janice Redmon shared her wish with LEX 18 back in April. Redmon originally had an appointment scheduled for the end of May.

A few delays pushed back the appointment, but Redmon and an entourage of caretakers finally got their fresh ink at Charmed Life Tattoo today.

Artist Stu Pfost asked Redmon, “is this your first tattoo?” Redmon nodded in response. “I’ll take it kind of slow,” Pfost said as he started.

“It’s been a blessing to help take care of Redmon,” said April Lewis, assistant director of health services at The Willows at Hamburg. “It’s just been really good that we could all get together and come and do something with her today.”

Redmon was diagnosed with ALS more than four and a half years ago. In April, Redmon shared her desire to get a butterfly design for her tattoo. When she arrived Friday, she had a different design in mind. It was a sun, with the words “Shine On,” underneath.

“She spends a lot of time outside,” Lewis explained, talking about the design change. “She loves the sun. If the sun is shining, she goes to the courtyard and she will spend about an hour out there every single day.”

Redmon wasn’t the only one getting a tattoo today. A group of her caretakers from The Willows decided to get the “I love you” symbol tattooed on their arms. Lewis was the first to get the symbol done.

“The design from the hand signal kind of came from Redmon's ALS,” Lewis said. “She’s starting to learn sign language. Because she has a hard time communicating, we do sign language with her, and the “I love you” is just something that we’ve kind of done from day one. That’s how she communicates with us, and that’s how we communicate with her.”

Caleb Barnes

“Wherever they end up, they’ll always have this story to tell,” Pfost said of the group. “That’s probably the coolest thing about it all.”

When Redmon got the chance to check out her new tattoo, a big grin was accompanied with joyful laughter from the group.

“I loved seeing that smile,” said Pfost. “When she was looking at it in the mirror, that was everything, that was cool.”

“It made me a little tearful,” Lewis added. “It was something that I feel like we’ve talked about for so long that we were waiting to happen, so now to see it and to see how excited she is and was able to go through with it, that was the best feeling.”

Before she left, Redmon also shared a message with her friends by typing on her tablet.

“I am blessed,” the message read. “I have loving children and awesome care from these beautiful women. I love them like family. I laugh every day. What more could you want?”