Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Summer 2014 Issue | Page 19

I don’t remember my baptism said the Rev.

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Deacon Mary Beth Emerson I just barely

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remember my confirmation But getting

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her first tattoo was different This

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was something I did as a real adult she
explained the decision to get a tattoo was

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a reminder of an important spiritual event
in her life : her ordination
To some, the image of a person with a collar and
a tattoo is a bit incongruous. But for Emerson
and other ordained folks in the Diocese, body art
speaks to their ministry and serves as a physical
reminder of faith.

Emerson was one of the first ordained
vocational deacons in the Diocese of Virginia.
Along with her fellow ordinands, “We joked
that if we ever got ordained, we’d have to do
something legendary to mark it.” So a few
months after her February 2011 ordination,
Emerson and her then-18-year-old daughter
made a trip to Keepsake Tattoo.
Her choice for the artwork? A triquetra, a
triangular Celtic symbol of int