….How do tattoos relate to trauma? Trauma leaves sudden, irevocable marks on the brain, body, mind, and spirit. These permanent traumatic imprints create a profound sense of loneliness. They cause the trauma survivor to feel detached and alienated from themselves and from others. They shatter the individual’s fundamental understanding of safety. They leave the person feeling out of control as thoughts, feelings, and memories chaotically intermingle with one another. The mark, the tattooed imprint that the trauma leaves on the brain is referred to by one author as a “quantum transformation” (Fosha, 2006). Everything changes in an instant, and this change is not linear or progressive: it is earth-shattering and jarring.

Tattoos represent a personal and public attempt at symbolically capturing pieces of an individual’s narrative, and unlike the disconnected scars left behind by trauma, tattoos leave behind “Scars filled with ink” (p.87) (Fruh& Thomas, 2012), and “whatever their content, however unique or generic, however badly or well inked, however their stories are told (truthfully or as complete fabrications), tattoos tell a story about a person’s relationship with their body and their relationship with the world” (p.156) (Lee, 2012)…
This book is transformative. Not only does it provide trauma survivors with the opportunity to verbalize the previously unspeakable, but it provides the reader with the opportunity to bear witness to another person’s pain and triumph. Although I have no plans on tattooing my weathered body, Tattoo Monologues fostered a new appreciation and understanding for tattooing, demonstrating that we are never too old to change…..