what do you want to tell me about your tattoo?
“when my mother tried to get my brother and I to sleep when we were younger, she used to tell this story about the sun and the moon. the story always stuck with me and I decided I wanted something beautiful on my body to symbolize that shared experience.
and then this boy came along, and I just so happened to fall in love with him under the warmth of the summer sun. he was lying next to me one day and he stumbled across my sketchbook. I had all my tattoo designs loosely sketched in there and he pointed out this one, told me he was drawn to it, almost like he used to be drawn to me.
the first night we didn’t spend in each other’s arms, he left me a note with a simplistic moon and sun on a piece of paper ripped out of my sketchbook and a “Night ♥” scribbled underneath. I had to remind myself to breathe when I discovered that stupid little paper on the corner of my desk.
even though he doesn’t love me anymore, I’ll never forget how he always managed to take my breath away. it was a constant, like the day turns into the night. and that’s how I know I’ll never regret it.”
tattoos are like
a way to depict a time in your life
when you found something so beautiful
a concept a word a symbol
an experience
and you found your own body
its resilience its pride its ability to be your canvas
so
fucking
beautiful
that it was enough to capture it
that you won’t regret them later in life
they are your life
little parts of your life
that’s why I like tattoos
so tell me about yours.
"we got it I wanna say mid-summer after we already established that we needed to take a break from each other. it was his idea.
‘I want us to get something that symbolizes the other person for us.’
I don’t know if he regrets his tattoo now, I have no idea, but like, for me when I look at it, it does remind me to focus on everything good that I gained from that relationship.
instead of all the shit that’s happened recently and how bad I feel now and how like, not over him I am, I’m still grateful. you know we started dating so early and that’s such a formative time and I’ve spoken to so many people and it’s weird for me to think that I know a lot of people who will say ‘oh, I’ve never been in love.’ that’s so interesting to me because it’s so hard for me to fathom that perspective as someone who fell in love at a really young age and it was a really serious relationship and I basically thought I was going to spend my life with him in some form.
now I’m glad I can say I experienced that so early. like, I feel lucky I had that experience even though it ended in a shitty way.
so yeah I don’t regret it. I like it. and that’s basically the story"
e.d
r.j
pt. 1
pt. 2
“this is a tree from my backyard at home. it’s the one that I can see from my bedroom window every time I look outside.
I think as I got older, a lot of my memories from when I was little started to fade out and as life started getting in the way, like shittier things started happening. I started going through a harder time and my parents marriage is falling apart -- they’re separated now; they don’t even live in the same place anymore. I think I wanted to — I don’t know why I’m crying I’m not sad -- I wanted to preserve a memory more than anything. I wanted to remember something for how it was. before it was meddled by life, I guess?
because life is really simple when you’re little.”
“suns have kinda always been my thing a little bit.
when I was little, my mom would say, ‘you’re always happy and smiley and sunshiny’ and I remember we were choosing between coats one time, there was a bright yellow one and a navy blue one, and I got the bright yellow one because I’m sunshiny and happy and bright. even though I never wear it because, you know, it’s a bright yellow jacket -- I’m not going to wear that.
and then I remember being so frustrated with my mom when I started getting really depressed because she’d keep saying, ‘but you’re so happy and you’re so sunshiny, this is who you are!’ and in my head I was saying, ‘that’s not who I am anymore.”
it’s tough to draw that raw emotion out of yourself when you just don’t feel it. I’ve gone through bouts of getting better and getting worse, but this is my little reminder to for me not lose myself.”
c.g
“it’s a mandala which symbolizes the universe.
I got it when I decided I wanted to be Buddhist – which I’ve been thinking about it for a very long time, since about early high school.
it’s not a complete tattoo. I want to get more down my spine and a lotus at the bottom. it’ll say ‘Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ’ -- the jewel of the lotus -- which symbolizes the dharma and the Buddha and all his teachings.
each syllable stands for something that is supposed to cleanse your soul and I think it’s a good reminder for me on how to live my life. it’s generosity, ethics, patience, diligence, renunciation, and wisdom. they’re all way to distance yourself from suffering, which is desire cause we live in a very materialistic society and it’s more of a way to live your life generously and to help others around you.
so this is part one of a future tattoo, and this was a way for me to come to terms with who I am, and who I want to be and everyday I’m learning more about it.
k.m
“it was just in time for my friend bri’s birthday, and she had also talked about wanting to do it, but the idea of giving myself a tattoo, especially my first tattoo, yanno, that would be kinda cool?
and we had been drinking a little bit, which probably definitely helped. um though, in retrospect maybe it wasn’t that smart because you know, giving a tattoo to yourself drunkenly…
it’s a pretty simple design, but I like that I can kinda look at it and it can mean nothing, but a variety of things to me whenever I decide I want it to mean any of those. does that make sense?”
e.r
pt. 1
pt. 2
“I had gotten it as a memorial tattoo for my father, who passed away in 2014.
my sister and I both have “Courage” tattooed on us and that was because my dad had always sang the courage song form the Wizard of Oz at the end about the cowardly lion. we thought that would represent him and who we both wanted to be.
courage also has the meaning of doing something that scares you, and I think that has a lot of power, and a lot of meaning behind just always doing something to strive to be better, and even if it does scare you, you can get past it.
and then the bonsai tree, you have to give them a lot of care to keep alive. so, in my lie, I want to keep a lot of care in myself and the people around me so I can keep them alive and healthy.
so ya, that’s what it means to me.”
“because every time I look at them it makes me really happy.”
(ft. philippe, fraank, and spike)
g.m
“the moon came first.
I had always heard my friends talk about giving themselves stick ‘n pokes and they said ‘oh, we’re going to do it now.’ and we were drinking and smoking and it was the beginning of the summer and school had just ended, finals were over, and I got a new car, I got a haircut, I got a boyfriend, I moved into a new house off-campus and everything was happening at the same time and I felt really confident, really good about myself and I was like, oh, lemme just give myself a tattoo.
when I was thinking of what to do, I immediately thought of moon. I went for it. and the next day I was just so proud that I gave it to myself. I did it. I put it there. It was something I did.
I wanted to recreate the experience of being proud so I made a sun.
oh! while I was giving myself the moon tattoo, I like how I could curl my toes and the moon would curl with it. I thought it was really cute, and it was really fun. and ya, I just really liked it.
f.i
“I’m obsessed with music to the extent that like, sometimes I just think how lucky I am. because I am alive, I get to hear all the music I like. I can’t imagine my life without it.
it’s a quote from my favorite radiohead song called ‘true love waits.’ at the end of the song, he says, ‘true love waits in haunted attics’ and I feel like it resonated with me because I feel you find actual love, genuine love, at the darkest times.
I got this after I recovered from my eating disorder and I had broken up with my ex, the only person I ever loved, and I don’t think I would have recovered if he hadn’t left me.
even though people think it’s depressing, I mean it like, the darkest times, when I found the people who actually love me.”
b.l
