Every tattoo I didn’t get says as much as the ones I did. My skin held space for who I’d become. Now, the story can begin.
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I’ve had to kept my body mostly inkless, because I couldn’t know where skin graft would be needed from for future surgery, but limbs are usually used. Then I saw an ad from an artist that would be in the country for just a couple of days: haunting, ethereal, made of mismatched parts that somehow belong. Like me.I knew instantly: this one was meant for me. With a consultation with a surgeon I’ve waited years for in the horizon, I felt bold enough to relinquish a leg to it.
If your ink could speak, what would it say?“Written on the body, there’s a secret code only visible under certain lights.” My ink would say: me and his scars are that code. We are both ornamment, celebration and records of the story of the body he fought to live in. Not all stories are meant to be read at once. Some were whispered in a grandmother’s arms. Some waited years for permission. Some mark where he held space for what hadn’t yet arrived. We are all chosen and beautiful.
What would you do with the $25,000?It would help me move forward—through a long-awaited surgery, through recovery, creating the conditions to heal well, stand steady, and finally live with the freedom I’ve been working toward, through the quiet logistics of starting fresh in a new place, and crafting a new life.
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Body art deserves to be shown off.
