OHLIVIA SIMMONS, Barista For me personally, it’s like wearing my heart on my sleeve in another sense. Everything I love about being me I get to permanently wear. To be a tattooed mother is far deeper than it may look to others. I grew with these images, and I love the art I wear. Things aren’t just things. They form as an idea and you get to visualize someone making it a real thing, you tell a person of a concept, they make that concept real. I felt a different approach from people as I began collecting more tattoos, perceptions change and the constant “What about when you’re old, what is that going to look like?” In return I’ve always wondered why people care so much about what I AM going to look like, instead worry about you. I wear my tattoos as a representation of myself for you to look at, not to judge. Becoming a mother and living and growing in a community where people seem more open to a mother with an “alternative” style makes me smile, makes me feel welcome and leveled. There are always going to be people who aren’t ever going to understand us, and that’s okay with me, it wasn’t always about being understood. I took getting tattooed as an opportunity to express myself in a permanent art form that will always allow me to be myself.
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