I have tattoos.: Mom, book nerd, lover of art, survivor.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Mom, book nerd, lover of art, survivor.

I am a mom and a happily married wife. I stay up late reading classic literature and drinking tea. I have been successfully employed as an award-winning journalist for more than a decade, after graduating summa cum laude with degrees in journalism and German/international media. I have traveled around the world for my job, writing about humanitarian efforts in Haiti and Africa, as well as natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina.

I was a cheerleader, sorority girl and straight-A student my entire life. I'm on the board of directors for my parents' nonprofit that I helped start, which provides health care, clean water and mosquito nets to refugees in Uganda. We have literally saved tens of thousands of lives. We are all tattooed. In fact, I got my first tattoo, a matching one with my mom, grandma and aunt, on my mom's 50th birthday.

I believe we are on Earth to inspire others, to create (which is why I love art so much and married a tattoo artist), to authentically be ourselves and to encourage others to authentically be themselves. I got a thorn bird tattoo on my arm after I lost 70 percent of my blood and nearly died in childbirth, but through the true grace of God, I am here. The legend of the thorn bird is that is creates the most beautiful song ever sung while it is on its deathbed. My daughter is my most beautiful song. And the art on my arm is a daily reminder that even in our darkest hours, we can create light. My bird is my symbol not that I almost died, but that I lived.

I have tattoos.

1 comment:

AnonymousJuly 26, 2012 at 9:19 AM
Love you.
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I have tattoos.

The most recent research shows 40 percent of Americans between 26 and 40 have at least one tattoo. That's nearly half of us. Furthermore, 36 percent of people between 18 and 25 do. Normal people. Successful people. Smart people. Truly, anyone.

Yet outdated stigmas and discrimination still exists, based solely on some people's unfounded misconceptions about the way a tattooed person looks -- completely disregarding the statistics, individual characters and the stories behind the tattoos.

Yes, tattoos are a choice. So is practicing a narrow perspective.

Perhaps the increase in tattoos amplifies some people's already prevailing prejudgments about people who look different than them. It's so much easier to write off a person based on something you, on the surface level, do not understand than it is to actually consider what lies underneath, below the skin.

This website was created after I witnessed an incident of discrimination against the "tattoo demographic," as a whole. This website is intended to help educate and dispel myths that you can even begin to classify people with tattoos in one "demographic," much less as all trouble-makers, all out for attention or in any way worth diminishing based on assumptions; no one deserves that.

Ultimately, this website is not even about tattoos, but it is about the real stories behind each person's surface. This website is not intended to convince anyone that they should get a tattoo, or that they should even like tattoos if they don't choose to get one themselves.

After all, as the saying goes, the only difference between people with tattoos and people without tattoos is that people with tattoos don't care whether or not other people have tattoos.