Menu
….Tattoo Monologues sends a powerful message to tattooed trauma survivors like me. We don’t have to cower in the shame of our trauma. We don’t have to hide our ink. They are a part of our story.
The collective voices of the women featured in this book present an alternative narrative about tattoos. Tattoos are not only for sailors and slaves. They are not only for gang members and bikers and social outcasts. They are also for social workers, teachers, and students. They are for accountants, medical professionals, and homemakers. They are for artists, therapists, and lawyers.
Despite the controversial history of tattoos, Tattoo Monologues offers an alternative frame for understanding and appreciating not only their symbolism, but the narratives that inspire them. This book suggests that we can reclaim a medium shrouded in stigma. We can rewrite the narrative. Isn’t that what trauma healing is all about: reclaiming that which was lost, transforming the pain, making meaning, and regaining control? …
….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…..
Copyright 2023 by Donna Torrisi and respective rights holders. ARR.
Website developed by AMPLiFY Communication Design.