Jessica Alba and Honor Get Matching Tattoos

That is certainly one way to prepare for university. Bedding and kitchen supplies can be replaced. Ink requires more commitment.

How is Alba handling Honor's move to Yale?

The tattoo comes as Alba prepares for her eldest child to leave home for college. The 45-year-old actress admitted she is still working out how she feels about the change.

“It hasn’t really hit me personally,” she told People in an interview published on Aug. 19, “but I think for any parent, just that milestone, it’s intense.”

“I don’t think you can prepare for it,” she added. “You just have to tackle it when it happens.”

Alba shares Honor with her former husband, Cash Warren. The former couple also have daughter Haven Warren, 15, and son Hayes Warren, 8.

Honor's move to Yale follows her high school graduation in May, an event that had already made clear how Alba was coping. The short version: with many tears and no particular interest in concealing them.

Graduation day brought plenty of tears

In a video posted on Instagram on the morning of the ceremony, Alba asked, “Graduation day. What have we been doing all morning?” She immediately supplied the answer: “Well, I've been crying.”

While sitting with Honor in the car, Alba recalled becoming emotional years earlier when dropping her daughter off at middle school.

“Honor, you're graduating today and I used to cry on my way to dropping you off to middle school because you felt so big,” she said, “and now I cry dropping you off to your graduation.”

Honor offered a concise assessment for the camera: “Guys, she’s going through it.”

Alba, who founded The Honest Company, explained that the tears came because her daughter is “the most incredible human in the whole world.” With graduation completed and Yale approaching, the matching ink gives them a lasting reminder of the transition, just in case the emotional Instagram archive was not sufficient.