King of Hearts tattoo. Lumin is the King in the relationship with Doyen. To see Doyen’s tattoos click here.

12 Aries Nation 5 Tattoo. Lumin got it to match their brother. They are both Aries. Lumin was born on the 5th of April, and Lumin’s brother was born on the 12th of April.

Jeremiah 29:11 Bible scripture tattoo. Lumin said, “He knows my plans. I am not really worried about it when things happen in my life. He is doing it for a reason.”

Joker Holding Cards and Chain Tattoo. Lumin had seen the tattoo, and liked it. Lumin got it cause they see themselves as a Joker. Lumin was a class clown at school and loves to play cards.

4/5/97 Star Tattoo. Lumin was born 4/5/97. The star is because Lumin is a superstar.

Lumin’s dad’s initials are T and A

Heart and Rosary tattoo. Lumin got this tattoo when an aunt died. This is to connect to their aunt.

Queen of Hearts. Doyen is the Queen in the relationship.This is a matching tattoo with partner, Lumin. To see Lumin’s tattoos click here.

Doyen’s partner has the key to their heart.

Doyen and their brothers have a set called “All About Money.” They all have the same initials as tattoos.

“Trust No Nigga, Fear no Bitch.” Doyen says, “I don’t trust no nigga, and I don’t fear no bitch.” Doyen also stated “I can fight.”

Sharon is Doyen’s mom. Mom is Doyen’s queen.

Doyen is loyal and from New Jersey.

Bless is Doyen’s dog that died.

Elzad is Doyen’s cousin who died.

The stars are connected to Doyen’s brothers. Each initial is one of their names. The date, 10-18-13, is connected to the Jae Ja Leel tattoo below.

Jae Ja Leel tattoo. This is Doyen’s ex’s name connected to the date, 10-18-13, which is the day they met.

Doyen’s brother’s nickname is “2 Tall.”

Love on middle finger tattoo. The tattoo says fuck love. Doyen’s explanation: “cuz fuck it.”

Doyen is a Pisces.

This is Doyen’s initials: SLW. (I don’t use anyone’s legit name).

Butterfly tattoos because Doyen is scared of butterflies.

Western Green Mamba Scale tattoo. Dendroaspis saw the snake in a zoo in Jacksonville. Dendroaspis immediately wanted this type of tattoo, and had to justify it. Dendroaspis’s mindset is that, in order for a snake to grow, it must shed its skin. A snake can not grow without changing. Things have to keep going and growing. You have to change. Life is a babbling stream and if it stops, it stagnates.

This is a rabbit tattoo. A memorial to their rabbit, Walnut. They had her for 12 years and the rabbit was incredible. Walnut passed away a while ago, but they still think about her all the time.

Morse code tattoo for word enigma. German enigma machine is how they made code of the day on how they sent messages to each other. It made it really hard for Americans to crack. The Americans finally found an enigma machine on a downed U boat. The Americans were then able to use the German’s keys to crack the code. Beatrix was in the military and copied Morse code. Beatrix said this was part of the story of the tattoo, and stated the rest of the story was personal.

Acora Imparo means “Still I Learn” in Italian. Michelangelo wrote this in the margin of one of his notebooks when he was 84 years old. This goes with the book in the center of the anatomical art. This tattoo symbolizes to always be learning and to love reading. The bearer wears their heart on their sleeve, which is where this tattoo is located. Rinascita connects this tattoo with the concept of continual learning, and seeking out new knowledge.

The Phoenix tattoo was Rinascita’s first tattoo. It is a drawing of a necklace. The necklace was meaningful about rebirth and a difficult time in Rinascita’s life. Rinascita went through horrible time in their life, and came out different and renewed.

The original tattoo was their birth month flower, but people thought it was a poinsettia. After 1.5 years, they went to a different tattoo artist. The artist redrew the design and this tattoo was the result.

Tattoo of Harriet the Spy from the book, which Pupa liked as a kid. Pupa first saw Harriet as a movie and the learned it was a book. Pupa then carried the book around everywhere. The book put Pupa on a journey to want to be a writer. The main character in the book wants to be a writer when she grows up, so she documents everything in a notebook. Pupa started carrying a notebook around as a kid, and still does it today. Pupa recently found the book from childhood, and it was held together by rubber bands. Pupa put it on their body because it started a path at 7 years old.

Bulb tattoo. Pupa got this tattoo because they used to work at a community garden. Pupa taught little kids how to grow plants. Every day they would work with kids growing plants. Pupa did this job for about 3 years. Pupa found this piece of art, and requested the artist’s permission to get this tattoo.It reminded Pupa of working in the garden and their personal growth. They also liked it because it looked really cool.

The lavender tattoo. This is their newest tattoo. They got it a couple of months ago. Pupa really likes lavender, and purple is their favorite color. Lavender is their favorite sent. Pupa has a lot of anxiety, and it calms them down. The lavender scent is used for stress relief. Pupa has an oil diffuser that emits the smell of lavender. The smell really makes them feel comforted.

The teeth tattoo. When in high school Pupa used to have nightmares about teeth falling out every night. They used to make play teeth. Then make the teeth into jewelry as a way to calm the nightmares. That is a similar thing to the making of jewelry. This is an omage to that time. Pupa tries to help themselves by generating the thing that scares them.

Cicada tattoo. This was their first tattoo. They got it when they were 19. Pupa won a raffle gift certificate from a tattoo shop in their town. The town had ban tattoo shops for the past 50 or 60 years. It was the first tattoo shop to open after that ban. The shop was doing a raffle to drum up business. Pupa won a 50 dollar gift certificate. The tattoo does not have real significance to Pupa. It just looked really cool, and it was their first tattoo. The tattoo should have cost more. The tattoo artist had a lot of fun doing the tattoo. the artist did not get a lot of tattoos like this at the time. Pupa paid maybe 50 dollars on top of the 50 dollar gift certificate.

Two Faces tattoo. The picture is an African artist Toyin Odutola. Toyin would use a Bic pen to create really intricate portraits of Africans and black people. Pupa really enjoyed Toyin’s work. Toyin used to do this type of art a decade ago. Pupa’s says the artist has grown a lot since then. Pupa was inspired by what Toyin did with a pen that anyone could easily throw away. Pupa also wanted more representation of their own people. Pupa is black(as stated by Pupa). Pupa wanted a kind of cultural representation on their own body. This was their first dive into this type of tattoo.

Garlic tattoo. Pupa got this while working at the community garden. The person who drew this tattoo also drew the whale tattoo (further down). The tattoo became a friendship tattoo. Pupa and artist both got the same tattoo. Pupa stated they both also really love garlic.

So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive:

This tattoo is from the end of a poem called “A Litany of Survival” by Audre Lorde. Audre is a black poet. Pupa wanted more representation of their self and culture on their body. Audre Lorde is one of their favorite poets. Pupa feels that Audre is talking about their people. How being black they were not meant to survive coming over here to the united states. Pupa also stated “What ever we feel we need to speak it we cant keep it inside ourselves.” Pupa really resonated with this idea when they got this tattoo. Pupa had spent a lot of time keep things to them self. Even if things hurt them, or they did not feel good. Pupa stated “It is important to speak your feelings, and needs because who knows how much time we have left on this planet. It is import to say what you need while you can.”

The whale tattoo. Pupa comes from a city called New London in Connecticut. People from the city are called the whalers it is kind of city name. New London was a whaling city back in the 1700/1800. It was the main industry back then. Pupa is very proud to come from that community. A lot of people wanted to escape the city. This was because its is a pour city and there are not many opportunities. Pupa has created a lot of opportunities for their self there, and proud to call them self a whaler.