Dana Arfsten

Connect What inspired your most recent tattoo?

I’ve got a skeleton cameo with filigree on my chest. I wanted it to cover up some scars on my chest. The artist who did it is a good friend of mine and I let them do one of their very first tattoos on me years ago. They’ve worked at my shop since they started tattooing and are in the process of moving out of state so I wanted them to do this very front and center piece for me.

If your ink could speak, what would it say?

I think it would tell the story of someone who is resilient and constantly trying to evolve. I’ve got a lot of smaller tattoos patched together on my lower legs that I did on myself. It’s a diary of what interested me at the time. My mom would say when I was real young it was like I was going to work and just drawing on myself, only these drawings I take to the grave. I tried to put a lot of time and thought into each one.

What would you do with the $25,000?

If I got 25,000 I would use it to keep traveling. That’s what I do now is travel the whole USA in a bus with my boyfriend. We could upgrade a lot of things in the bus with that money and spend more time on the road and less at home.