Scrolling via TikTok, Janee Welcome got here throughout an identical tattoo design of a pair of cheery cats sporting mushroom hats. Welcome approached her two greatest pals with the design, assuring them the tattoo designed for duos would work for his or her trio.
The three pals made their technique to a Slanging Ink in Houston the place artist Anthony Hoang inked the three matching cats. Welcome mentioned she and her pals have since turn into routine prospects of Anthony, who even coined a nickname for his or her trio — the “mushroom cats.”
Welcome, who sports activities her mushroom cat on her proper forearm, mentioned the trio grew nearer after getting inked collectively, even happening a number of group holidays since.
“We’ve identified one another since elementary faculty,” mentioned Welcome, a radio-television-film senior. “All through highschool we at all times had our personal little buddy teams, however we acquired actually, actually shut junior and senior yr.”
The childhood greatest pals first met as college students at McNeil Elementary College in Richmond, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Nonetheless, Welcome mentioned their shared love of music introduced them nearer collectively in highschool as they began going to live shows collectively, bonding over artists like Surfaces and The Driver Period.
“Throughout quarantine, we had been like, ‘Let’s strive all these new issues collectively earlier than we go away to go to school,’” Welcome mentioned.
One of many new experiences the trio shared earlier than going to separate faculties — UT, College of Houston and Texas A&M College — was getting tattoos. To check what tattoo ache appears like, the group went collectively to get their first ink: matching hearts. Two of the buddies, together with Welcome, positioned the guts on their finger, and one positioned it on their ribcage.
“Proper now, if somebody I met at UT requested me (to) get my matching tats I’d be (hesitant), however I used to be down with them as a result of I’ve identified them since elementary faculty,” Welcome mentioned.
Although a reminder of childhood friendship, Welcome mentioned the mushroom cats impressed her to undertake a cat of her personal — a now 1-year-old orange kitten she named Jupiter.
Welcome mentioned Jupiter, who she adopted from Austin Pets Alive, sports activities orange fur and stripes just like the planet. Welcome mentioned her “little rascal” impressed her to hunt out the design for her subsequent tattoo — the planet Jupiter with a cat paw within the center.
“(He’s) my little child, and he’s going to be with me for the subsequent 20 years,” Welcome mentioned. “I really need a bit of tat for him.”