111. A couple of my friends that I grew up with went to prison. They are still my brothers. Something unfortunate happened to them. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They had to protect themselves, and now they are in prison. 111 is the Highway in Goldsboro where we grew up.

919. This is the area code I’m from in Seven Springs, NC. I got the outline of the state because I am from North Carolina.

Rednexican. This is because I am a country redneck Mexican boy. I liked the name, and I got it tattooed.

Aztec skull. This connected to my culture. I am Mexican, and they had Aztecs in Mexico. I liked the look of it, and I got it.

This is my company’s logo. The Tao is the symbol of balance between Yin and Yang. The name of my company is Healing Hands and Bodywork. The hands symbolize strength and stability, holding the Tao, which is balance.

Dragonfly. I talked four other women into getting this tattoo. There was a tattoo fest going on in Arkansas. I am terrified of needles. I trusted the man doing this, and he did well. After this, every July, we would get another tattoo at the festival.

This is called a Celtic quarter moon. It is way cool. It looks like I could throw it if it were metal, and it could hurt people.

This one is for my best friend who died. The flower is a pansy. She had a daughter and two sons. She got the same tattoo.

Peace dove with olive branch tattoo. I got it when I turned 50-years-old. The bird is a symbol of peace, and the olive branch connects to my faith.

Nautical Star tattoo. This was my first tattoo. I used to fight MMA inside of a cage. It was a fight house & I was a part of a group called Northern Pain. It’s a nautical star to remember where you came from and where you are going in the future.

I had just come off a deployment. I was 20 years old at the time. I had a buddy who had died in combat. I got this tattoo to remember him. One of the things you had to have with you when going out on a mission was a gas mask. He could not figure out where his gas mask was. I passed him mine. For him, I got the biohazard symbol. It’s a piece of a lost art for a brotherhood.

Dragon, woman, and koi fish tattoo. This was default always to have someone to love. And a dragon for honor and strength. The koi fish is for luck.

Samurai with bear flag tattoos. The samurai was for the art of battle, respect for yourself and others, and humility. The bear flag is from my partner. They used to call me polar bear because I lived in Alaska for so long. That was my way of adding my partner to the tattoo. It was to show I belonged to somebody; that I was already taken.

At the end of the day, it just shows I once had money to blow on a tattoo.

I got courage as my first tattoo. I traveled to Danville, VA, to get this tattoo. My dad took me for my 17th birthday present. I had gone through some personal stuff the year before. I got courage tattooed on my foot. When I look down, I see this word on my foot and know I have the courage to get through the day.

The symbol of Venice tattoo. It is the symbol of a female. I got this to represent female empowerment. I did this myself as a stick and poke. Stick and poke as it’s real ink and a real tattoo needle, but it’s a hand poke.

Musical note. I have done a lot of choir and singing throughout my life. I did this one myself and thought it would be fun.

Tulip flower tattoo. I studied abroad in Amsterdam for three weeks in arts administration. We went on many museum tours and met with a lot of the heads of art organizations. We went to the Van Gogh museum. I fell in love with the area. They have tulip fields in Amsterdam. I got this tattoo to commemorate my time there. It was incredible.

Moon with Star tattoo. This is also a hand poke. I am really into Sailor Moon. This is one of the first hand pokes I did on myself. I just thought doing the shape of the moon would be interesting.

This tattoo looks like a “y,” as it is not done very well. It is supposed to be the constellation Sagitta. It is part of Sagittarius. My brother is a Sagittarius.

Triangle tattoo. In college, I did a show called Sanctuary. The three of us got to create our own spaces, perform, and be very vulnerable in front of an audience. It was a show that allowed us to do a therapeutic performance. The three of us did it together. This is another hand poke to commemorate that experience.
The triangle is the strongest shape.

Constellation Phoenix tattoo. There was a point in college when I started going to therapy more heavily. I started to unpack some trauma. I did this on myself to commemorate my rebirth, start to rebuild, and feel more comfortable in my skin.

Flower tattoo. This was another hand poke I did. It was very late; I had the supplies. I was kind of bored. I was like, I bet I could do a flower. I free-handed this. I think it turned out ok.

Sunflower tattoo. While I was in college, My uncle lived with us at the time. He committed suicide in our home. About a year or two before this, when he first moved in, he gave me a picture of a sunflower. I took this picture to college with me, and I still have it. It is one of my favorite pictures. The picture has a flower written in French under the sunflower. This was because we had both taken French in school. When he passed away, I got a replica of that picture tattooed, so I would always have him with me.

Nearly every graduate of Navy Diver School has a similar tattoo somewhere on their body. I would guess 95 to 97 percent.

My buddy and I stayed up all night drinking and ended up at a sketchy Aryan tattoo artist’s shop. The artist free-drew this tattoo. This is called the Marka or Mark V dive helmet. This was the dive helmet divers used until the late 1980s. This is also the insignia for the uniform of a Navy diver.

Only two people in the world have this exact tattoo — my buddy and me.