A woman has shared the heartbreaking way she is commemorating her kitten with a permanent tattoo after she tragically passed away.
On April 3, Katerina Krimliadi, 21, took her kitten, named Inky, to the vets to get spayed. She thought it would be a straightforward procedure, and she received a call shortly after to say it had gone well.
However, Krimliadi told Newsweek that, when 10-month-old Inky came round from the anesthetic, she struggled to breathe and couldn’t be saved. Subsequent scans revealed that the kitten had fluid on her lungs and showed signs of a hiatal hernia, which is when part of the stomach bulges through the diaphragm.
“I was in shock, and I couldn’t believe it. The vets called me to say that everything went well, and then, one hour later, they called me to say that she was dead,” Krimliadi said.
Needless to say, the owner was left devastated by the news and horrified that she didn’t even get to say goodbye to Inky.
But as Krimliadi looked down at her hands, she noticed some of the scratch marks Inky had left on her skin when they were playing in the days prior. They remained on her wrist, and Krimliadi instantly knew that she wanted to cherish them for the rest of her life.
The following day, she messaged her tattoo artist without hesitation and arranged an appointment.
“I didn’t have any second thoughts, and I got the paw marks tattooed four days after Inky passed away. I love how it turned out and I couldn’t ask for a more-perfect tattoo,” Krimliadi continued.
The tattoo procedure lasted only around five minutes, but now Krimliadi will have Inky by her side forever.
She posted a video of the moment she got the paw marks tattooed on TikTok (@_krimliadi_), adding that she was “holding on forever” to what she has left on Inky. In the days since it was posted on April 7, the clip has gone viral with more than 370,200 views and over 49,800 likes on TikTok at the time of writing.
Krimliadi said she never imagined that her video would generate so much attention online, but she has been blown away by all the support she’s received. She couldn’t be more grateful to the fellow pet owners who offered their condolences and praised her heartfelt gesture.
“I came to realize that many people experience this pain just like me. Pet loss is the worst, but people have been very supportive,” Krimliadi told Newsweek.
Internet users took to the comments section to share their heartbreak at Krimliadi’s new tattoo, leading to almost 200 comments on the TikTok post so far.
One comment reads: “Omg [oh my God] this just made me cry how sweet I’m so sorry.”
Another TikTok user wrote: “This ruined me and it’s only 8am.”
A third person added: “Not being able to say goodbye is the worst feeling.”
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