The permanent bonds of family and friends in ink

This is sponsored content for the Australian War Memorial.

When Christine Hall's husband Stephen returned from Afghanistan in 2012, she felt compelled to capture the moment forever.

She had an image of a woman embracing an Australia soldier tattooed on her back as a permanent reminder of her husband's homecoming.

"Steve had just got back from Afghanistan, and I just wanted to commemorate that time," she said.

"It's such a big part of me now - I must have this tattoo - and if someone asks me about it I can explain and tell them our story."

Their story is told at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra as part of Ink in the Lines, a new temporary exhibition, the first of its kind at the Memorial, sharing stories of Australia's military veterans and their families, through their tattoos.

Christine met Stephen in Melbourne before he joined the army.

"I was 18 and he would have been 20," she said.

"I was just finishing high school and we were at a mutual friend's birthday party. They had terrible music on, and he was walking around with some Nirvana CDs so we tracked him down, and then we exchanged MSN chat details, and it just went from there.

"We've been together ever since."

They were married in the Dandenong Ranges in 2007, and Stephen joined the army a few years later at the age of 28. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 as part of Operation Slipper, and then Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates in 2015.

"We got posted to Brisbane when I was 33 weeks pregnant with our first child and then he was on pre-deployment training to go to Afghanistan when our daughter was three and a half months old," Christine said.

"It's going to choke me up ... but I found it really hard.

"I didn't want to do the whole goodbye thing [when he went to Afghanistan], so I booked a flight for me and my daughter to go to Melbourne, and said, 'Just drop me at the airport; don't say anything; just go.'

"I could see his reflection as I was entering the plane, and the baby was fussing, and he went to come over, and I had to put up my hand [to say] don't, because I didn't want to lose it."

She would do her shopping during the week to avoid seeing families together and would send care packages full of lollies to her husband each week as she anxiously awaited news from him.

"I used to wake up early and just check to see if he was online and wait for a message," she said.

"When casualties happened, the communications went into lockdown and you didn't hear from them for a few days until they had notified the families, and that's when you panic.

"You want the phone to ring, not a knock at the door."

She will never forget how she felt when he arrived home safe and well.

"The baby had grown a lot, and I was in a flood of tears," she said.

"You're just so relieved and happy to see them."

Today, her tattoo is a permanent reminder of these experiences.

"It's a representation of me and every other army wife and partner that has missed their partner when they're deployed, or even on exercise," she said.

"People who are serving are real people - they have families, and they do make sacrifices.

"They miss their families. Their families are missing them. You don't know what they are seeing over there. You don't know what they experience.

"We might think that our story is small, but it may mean something to someone else as well.

"The army touches a lot of lives, and I think everyone's got a story to tell.

"I'm just so happy he came back in one piece."

Ink in the Lines is on display until 27 January 2021. Visit www.awm.gov.au/ink

This is sponsored content for the Australian War Memorial.