For freshman Augustus Welch, better known by his friends as Augie, the recent artwork on his upper back serves as both a tribute to a favorite actress and a reminder of home.

His tattoo features a four-story stucco house and the lyrics “Home is wherever I’m with you,” a line from a cherished song by folk band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The house is an actual representation of his family home in Omaha, Nebraska.

Welch says he was originally inspired by watching Lena Dunham, who has a similar tattoo, on the popular HBO TV series “Girls.”

“My mother drew that tattoo,” he said. “It’s the house that I grew up in.”

Welch’s mother, an art school graduate who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, mainly paints in oil, but made an exception for her son and agreed to draw the tattoo. Welch recalls that his mother was initially against the idea of his getting a tattoo, but he assured her worries by asking her to draw the piece herself.

To Welch, having his mother draw the tattoo gave it much more personal meaning and sentimental value, and his mother was happy to acquiesce.

His mother was also swayed by their grand Midwestern home, which has immense personal value to his family because of the memories they share there and the long history that lives within its walls.

In 1914, the home was built from pieces of salvaged wood provided by an old church that was destroyed by a storm. It sits on a half acre of fertile Nebraskan land and towers impressively above the landscape. At four stories, it is a colossal masterpiece of a house with enough doors and windows to confuse any guest. Aside from its rich architectural history, friends of the Welch family were also previous tenants of the home, upping the value of the house even further.

“The house used to belong to good friends of ours,” said Welch. “They lived in the house for years before selling it to us, and that makes it more special.”

Welch’s father also sports the same ink of a house and song lyrics on his own back.

This matching tattoo is part of a tradition of tattoos in Welch’s family.

Within the Welch family, the tattoo is not only a means of expression, but an important symbol of their strong bonds with each other and their heritage.

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