In July 2022, 16-year-old Aoife Johnston was on holiday in Spain with her two parents. While there, she got her first tattoo: an infinity sign and rose to represent her nanny who had died almost two years earlier.
Her 25-year-old sister Kate couldn’t believe her parents had let her, saying she “got away with so much more” than she and their other sister, Meagan (27), did when they were the same age.
“I rang the pair of them [mam and dad] because I didn’t believe she was allowed. I thought it was just henna,” she says with a laugh.
There is a certain beauty now, they say, in her tattoo being the infinity symbol. Aoife might be gone physically, but she will live on with them forever, as will her legacy and impact.
Aoife, from Shannon in Co Clare, died of meningitis on December 19th, 2022, at University Hospital…