“My body is a journal, and my tattoos are my story.” – Johnny Depp

When I was sixteen, I got my first tattoo. I knew for months I wanted a quote that would show strength and resilience throughout a year of turmoil and adversity. After planning for a long time, I decided that “this too shall pass” was going to be tattooed on the left side of my ribs. It was a constant reminder every time I looked in the mirror, that through all the materialistic things and problems in life that held me down, it was all going to wither away at some point in time.

Although the ink soaking into my skin on my bones was quite painful (I’m definitely not going to sugar coat it), I truly felt like it made me beautiful. My mother always questioned me and asked, “why can’t you just have a picture of the quote in your room to be portrayed as your mantra?” She had a reasonable point, no doubt, but tattooing has allowed me to believe my body isn’t fat, ugly, or any negative thing that society fuels our brains to believe. Like Johnny Depp said, it’s a story, and our body is just like a canvas, and tattoos are splatters of beautiful paint.

Last April, I met tattoo superstar, also star of LA Ink, Kat Von D. After reading her book, Go Big or Go Home, I felt that through her anecdotes that tattoos are truly a symbol of strength, which every person needs, don’t you think?

When senior Valerie Aich was little, her dad passed away. Before he died, he wrote a letter to Valerie’s mom on Valentine’s Day that said, “I love you and my beautiful daughter.”

“I always wanted a tattoo and I thought that the idea of my tattoo [the words from her Dad’s letter] would be perfect because it’s so meaningful. It’s on my wrist, because I want to be professional, so I can easily cover it up with a watch or something,” Aich said. “Having ‘I love you’ in my dad’s handwriting on such a close part of my body is a reminder that my dad’s always going to be with me.”

This year, I suffered heartbreak and loss which put me into a dark state of mind. I wasn’t being my social, friendly self. I was bitter, reclusive, and always irritable to the ones I love. Then, one day, inspiration struck me like a slap in the face, and I realized life was too short to be surrounded by darkness. There was a quote I found which said, “when the sun is shining, I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome.” On October 19, I stepped into Chi-Town Tattoo and got a sun of different rays of light beams on the back on my neck. Each time I feel like nothing is ever going right, or I’m in the dumps, I stroke my tattoos (is that weird??) and I truly feel as if magic is exceeding through my fingertips; I find some sort of comfort in them.

Along with getting through tough times, I truly believe not only tattoos make you feel better about your body but piercings, too!

In August, I got my nose pierced at Chi-Town Tattoo (Chi-Town Tattoo has been mentioned twice in my column now, so I recommend you go there if you’re interested), and to me, it was a big step, because my whole life I’ve been insecure about my nose. On the right nostril I have a mole, and when I was younger, I would always tilt my head to hide that side of my nose. Now that I have that piercing, I embrace that insecurity, and I feel beautiful!

It bothers me when people have certain misconceptions about tattoos and piercings, because some, like my grandma, think they’re for thugs and gangsters. More and more mothers, feminists, lawyers, even old ladies, are getting tattoos! It’s a way to feel empowered through art, with a message or picture, and nothing feels more awesome than that.