The second the needle hit, Chelsee Haber’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped as her hand-picked design was permanently drawn on her foot. Haber, a freshman from Belchertown, Mass., had been planning this tattoo for weeks.

“I didn’t want to just stamp ‘I love you’ on my body, but I needed something to represent the friends and family in my life that mean the most to me,” she said.

After brainstorming many ideas, Haber came up with “all the way to the moon,” which she had drawn on her foot.

“To me, it’s like telling someone you love them all the way to the moon and back.”

When she walked into Carter’s Tattoo Company, 948 31W Bypass, she only knew which words she wanted written and that she wanted them on her foot.

She asked Atom Compton, the tattoo artist, to redraw her idea over and over, searching for the perfect font down to the letter.

“If it’s going to be on my foot forever, I need it to be perfect,” she said.

After Compton finished the design, Haber followed him to the back room, and about ten minutes later, those six words were etched on her foot.

Haber said she left behind the friends and family she loves most when she traveled from Massachusetts to attend WKU this year.

She said this tattoo will always be a reminder of the people back home that support and love her during this transition.

When it was done, Haber looked down at her finished tattoo and remarked, “It’s perfect.”

“A Thousand Words” is a weekly photo essay that tells untold stories on the edges of campus.