Isabella Schalk

One of my best friend’s Grace inspired my most recent tattoo. In August I moved from Virginia to Florida to reset my life and be closer to my brother. When I left one of my good friends gave me this little picture book of us and one of the things she wrote was “Cheers to our adventures.” She committed suicide in early November so I got that on my shoulder in her hand writing, it reminds me she’s always cheering for my new adventures.

If my ink could speak it would tell everyone not to judge a book by its cover. I know an old basic saying, but it’s real. A lot of people look at me and my tattoos and think I’m immature and young and crazy but I got some of my tattoos at my darkest times. Some cover scars people will never know the story behind, some I got last minute because of traumatic things that happened on the way to the appointment. You never know someone’s story. My ink would say that.

This past Thanksgiving my brother passed in a motorcycle accident. For months I’ve had ideas of how to honor him but haven’t quite had the assets to pull it off. A few days before he died he insisted that when he passed he be buried under a willow tree and while we couldn’t do that, we can bury his ashes under one. That’s something I’d love to do for my brother as well as get a sleeve on my right arm honoring who he was and the friendship/ memories we shared.