I was 16 when I got my first tattoo. My friend took me
to a sound proof music room at our boarding school
and poke by poke gave me my first ink. I wanted some-
thing to symbolize the end of a period of strug-
gle for me, and to remind me of the anxiety that
came with convincing myself that I was stuck in
that space. That night in my sophomore year of high
school, I got a delta tattooed on my shoulder, a per-
manent symbol to remind me that change will always
come. Looking back, getting my first tattoo was a rite
of passage for me in which I came out with a sense
of confidence to be my own agent for the change in my
life.
For this project, I wanted to take photographs of
tattoos of people at Swarthmore because like ink on
paper, tattoos write a hidden story of their own.
Like photographs, there is an unspoken narrative with
tattoos. Sometimes the story is hidden and revealed
so some, but for others their story is for everyone
to see. Tattoos invite other people to question the
art we chose to permanently take with us everywhere
we go and inquire about our decision to use our body
as a canvass for art. For those I photographed, their
tattoos were a decision to create something beautiful
and a reminder of a previous time in their life load-
ed with feelings of grief, struggle, mistakes, happi-
ness, excitement and anxiety.
To those I photographed, thank you for sharing you
ink with me.
INK’D
9
RCIA
S GA
JAME