Category Archives: Healing Tattoos

This man’s brother was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 4 years old and fought it, then he lost his battle to brain cancer. The quote “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers” is one of the well-known lines from the St. Crispin’s Day Speech given by the King in Shakespeare’s Henry V, when HenryContinue reading “We happy few, we band of brothers”

Bea had always wanted to get a tattoo but she “always wanted it to have some meaning.” Bea got her first tattoo around 1997 and has a total of three, all of which symbolize or commemorate milestones in her life. She was a single parent who had escaped an abusive relationship and is now workingContinue reading “Bea: struggles, resilience, and milestones”

MountainMoon is a 40-year-old woman from Ontario. MountainMoon explains that while she envisioned herself getting a tattoo for many years, there were cultural and financial barriers that prevented her from doing so. Growing up in a strict immigrant home, tattoos were not endorsed by her family. After years of struggling with depression, this tattoo wasContinue reading “MountainMoon: Becoming the most authentic version of myself”

Healed by Ink is a woman in her mid 20s. She has a tattoo of “one of many traditional depictions of Ganesh.” When discussing her tattoo, Healed by Ink says that “when [she] was committed to no longer inflicting self-harm on [her]self, [she] got Ganesh tattooed over her scars. Ganesh is known as the removerContinue reading “Healed by Ink: I am still here”

Lily is a woman in her late 20s. She shares, “My tattoo is a minimalistic design of mountains, trees, and a wave. I got the tattoo after my brother’s third suicide attempt, representing the three main places we spent time together growing up: the woods beside our childhood home, skiing, and the beach at ourContinue reading “Lily: My brother’s keeper”

Grimoire is a woman in her late 20s who has been getting tattoos that contribute to her very own grimoire (loosely defines as a spell book). Grimoire explains: “Each tattoo is a personal reminder of things that give me strength or attributes I aspire to uphold. The arbutus tree in a port-hole window keeps anContinue reading “Grimoire: Feed on the good fire and extinguish the bad”

Frankie is a 33-year-old woman with a tattoo of a phoenix on her forearm. The phoenix is yellow and teal, representing the two types of cancer that Frankie battled: yellow for sarcoma and teal for ovarian. Frankie describes that the person she was before cancer metaphorically died, and a new version of herself was bornContinue reading “Frankie: Born from the ashes”

Emi is a woman in her late 20s who lost both of her grandparents within a month of each other. Her grandfather was the was the first loved one she had ever lost. He was an amazing painter (in the Chinese watercolour style), and Emi loved the florals he used to design. She wanted aContinue reading “Emi: Always with me”