Sophie Davies

Connect What inspired your most recent tattoo?

It was inspired by a fishing trip I took with my cousins when I was very young. Near the end of our trip, we caught the biggest, ugliest fish any of us had ever seen. It was so otherworldly, we were convinced we had discovered a new species. After a few years of searching various books of fish, we found what we were looking for: it was a northern stargazer. I got this northern stargazer as a tribute to my youth, my cousins, and the belief that there are always new entities to discover.

If your ink could speak, what would it say?

We all came from the tiniest prokaryotic organism in the sea. When we die, we will all go back to the dirt. In between, it is Mother Earth who grants us the ability to live freely, to create art, to live our lives the way that we want, as long as we don’t hinder the lives of others. Let’s do what we can to keep our world and our oceans clean and safe.

What would you do with the $25,000?

Currently, I am working as a teacher in the Economics of Water Resources, chemistry, physics, and biology while I attend community college to get my prerequisites to apply for a PhD in Marine Biology. I would use this money as some cushioning to my savings while I attend grad school, but also a small portion to get a new tattoo of course. Trying to get new ink on a teacher’s budget while living in Brooklyn is quite challenging.