I got my first tattoo last week. It’s about six inches in size, runs vertically down my ribs, and memorializes the last line of one of my favorite poems: “What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use” by Ada Limón. The line reads: “disorderly, and marvelous, and ours.”
That glorious sequence of adjectives resonates with me for many reasons. It reminds me to embrace chaos, marvel at moments of eccentricity, and take ownership of the life I’ve been given. It blurs the boundaries between messy and wonderful, perfectly capturing the most exhilarating and frightening qualities of life. Additionally, it symbolizes my first literary love, poetry, and the person with whom I share that love, my grandmother. The tattoo itself is not only a source of inspiration, but of confidence; having this art on my body makes me feel beautiful.
As I planned my inaugural tattoo experience, I became curious about other Yalies’ relationships with their tattoos. Hoping to learn the silly, touching, and top-secret stories behind their ink, I began reaching out to students on campus.
Kylie Volavongsa, SM ’25, has five tattoos. Kylie spent her gap year embracing a wild-and-free, find-yourself mentality that culminated in her first tattoo. When I asked about the inspiration behind the tattoo, she laughed and admitted that it was dubious at best. On her bicep sits a small frog inked in red. It’s her favorite Soju brand’s logo. When I asked why she chose to get the tattoo in color, she told me that she wanted to one-up her friend Paige, who had recently started a sticker sleeve.
Aside from the frog, Kylie has since obtained a bright-green cicada and the blue face of a crying man, both from professional studios. “Sometimes we need to have a little serious moment,” she said as she rolled up her sleeve to show me the latter. Kylie also boasts two stick-and-pokes: a bird and a cute, blob-like creature named Ferg. “I want an arm full of little friends.”
The last thing I asked Kylie was if she would want more tattoos, and she responded with a definitive yes. In fact, she already has the inspiration for her next piece. While collaging over break, her friend gave her some magazine cutouts to use. One of the cutouts said, “Walk forward. I’ll catch you.” The words struck her. She loves the way they remind her of friendship and epitomize the beauty of solidarity.
*****
When Christian Oestergaard, BF ’25, was on his gap year, he served eight months in the Danish military. He got his first tattoo just days after finishing his service alongside three of his fellow national guardsmen. The tattoo is in a medieval, Gothic font on the inside of his bicep. He chose the Latin words, “Pro Rege et Grege,” meaning, “For King and People”—the creed of the Queen’s Guard. While he was anxious about the pain, it wasn’t nearly as bad as he expected; by the time the artist finished, he was already fantasizing about what he would get next. He made sure to warn me that once you get your first tattoo, “It is maybe a little too easy to get a second.”
When asked if he stood by his ink, Christian responded confidently that his first tattoo was one of the best decisions he ever made. He loves that it serves as a daily reminder of the discipline he learned in the military. To him, the words emblazoned on his arm embody the sacrifices that he made and reflect the reasons he’s standing where he is today.
In addition to his military tattoo, Christian has a rose on his upper bicep, which he got in New York City with friends. He confessed that his second tattoo was a bit impulsive, carrying less significance than the first. However, he approached its permanence with marked nonchalance. He told me that even if it seems silly, it salutes a cherished memory created alongside his friends. For Christian, a tattoo must have personal meaning. He explained, “I’ve got to associate the tattoo with something in my life. I don’t think you should get a tattoo just because it looks cool.” In the future, he is planning to get a tattoo of the date his grandfather died to honor his spirit and keep his memory close.
*****
Each of Elise Williamson’s, SY ’24, three tattoos has its own touching origin story. Right after graduating high school, Elise received her first tattoo as a matching piece with her mom. The tattoo, located beneath her collar bone, consists of the outline of a hand with a lip print on the palm. Elise grew up with a single mom and two sisters. Whenever Elise or her sisters would leave home for a sleepover or summer camp, her mom would make a paper cutout of her hand, put on red lipstick, kiss the paper hand, and sneak it into the girls’ bags. The tattoo of the kissed hand commemorates this tradition and the bond between the four women in her family. Both of her sisters also plan to follow the example of Elise and her mother, getting identical pieces upon graduating high school.
Elise’s second tattoo, a fish riding a bicycle on her bicep, is the one that raises the most eyebrows. Inked around six months after her first tattoo, this image serves as a visual representation of the Gloria Steinem quote, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Elise cites growing up with just her mom as a huge source of independence and confidence; Steinem’s words felt like an ideal way to honor the strength in her all-female family.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Elise acquired her third and final tattoo: two small lines of text beneath the crease of her elbow that read, “BIG WORDS SMALL MEN.” The tattoo abbreviates the words of Muhammad Ali, “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it.” Both Ali and Williamson grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Muhammad Ali Center provided Elise with an integral sense of community and mentorship as she explored her passion for activism. The tattoo pays homage to her hometown and the circles within it that kept her grounded throughout high school.
While Kylie and Christian have both gotten multiple tattoos within a year, Elise abides by a strict rule: she must sit on a tattoo idea for a year before she actualizes it. With a more conservative timeline, I wondered if Elise was warier of regret than my other interviewees. Elise hopes that by the time she might want to remove a tattoo, it will be a much simpler, speedier, and more painless process. “Probably like ten, twenty years from now—technology is advancing so quickly—if I get to a point where I regret it, more than likely they will have technology where they can just zap it off.” Despite this outlook, Elise truly doubts she will regret her ink as it revolves around her family and home city, which will never lose their importance. Elise claims that if she is caught up in tattoo regret at ninety years old, then she “isn’t living the life she should be.” She finds great power in being at a point in her life where she feels so strongly about something she wants it permanently on her body.
*****
Like those I’d interviewed before her, Claire St. Peter, DC ’24 got her first tattoo during her gap year. For years, Claire had wanted a tattoo, but she could never put her finger on a specific design. While living in Venice Beach, a friend introduced her to an L.A. tattoo artist named Tia Naayem, who specialized in digitally warping phrases to create artful abstractions.
One Tuesday afternoon in April, Claire was perusing Instagram, and she saw that Naayem had posted a message advertising a last-minute available appointment. Claire confidently swooped in, scrolling through Naayem’s feed to pick out a design. She decided to get an abstraction of the sentence, “Run your fingers through the back of my hair,” on her left bicep. Although Claire didn’t choose these words from scratch, she has retroactively found meaning in them. She doesn’t consider herself a particularly sexual or romantic person, but the phrase from which her tattoo originated reminds her to break out of her comfort zone.
It has been ten months since Naayem’s artwork first came to grace Claire’s arm, and she loves it more than ever. “To an outsider, my decision to get the tattoo might appear hurried, but in reality, getting this tattoo was the realization of one of my long-held desires. That afternoon was definitely a defining moment for me, because the choice to get this tattoo was one that I made by myself, for myself. It was a moment of pure self-love and independence.”
*****
Following my conversation with Claire, I spoke to my last interviewee: Audrey Hempel, TC ’25, who received her first tattoo about thirteen months ago. At the time, she had just moved across the country on a gap year, and similar to Kylie, a tattoo seemed like the ideal way to honor a new sense of freedom. She chose a California poppy on her ribs, which serves as a symbol of home.
Her second tattoo, a mountain range on her back, reflects her love of skiing. Audrey worked as a ski instructor at Park City Mountain during her gap year, teaching both children and adults to ski. When getting her tattoo, she asked the artist to make the shape of the mountains reminiscent of the famed Utah resort.
Audrey’s third venture into the realm of tattoos resulted in a three-for-one deal. She left the studio with a blue whale, killer whale, and whale shark on her hip. The trio encapsulates her passion for music, drawing on whales’ song-like vocalizations, as well as her affinity for the ocean. She also couldn’t help but point out that the tattoo looks “really sick.”
I once met a man who described his tattoos as a scrapbook of his life, and his outlook has since stuck with me. It seems that Audrey, in addition to Christian, has a similar view. She wrote to me that she considers her tattoos a catalog of her adventures; she collects a new one each time she moves to a new place. Showcasing art on her body transcends the realm of aesthetic value, providing her with a powerful avenue towards self-love. Tattoos allow Audrey to view her body as a canvas; she chooses to get tattoos on parts of her body that she hasn’t always loved, and they help her view her skin as beautiful and worthy. “Of course, there is always the fear that I will regret getting tattoos later, but honestly who cares?” Audrey wrote. “I try to live my life ending up with the right regrets.”
I got my first tattoo last week. It’s about six inches in size, runs vertically down my ribs, and memorializes the last line of one of my favorite poems: “What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use” by Ada Limón. The line reads: “disorderly, and marvelous, and ours.”
That glorious sequence of adjectives resonates with me for many reasons. It reminds me to embrace chaos, marvel at moments of eccentricity, and take ownership of the life I’ve been given. It blurs the boundaries between messy and wonderful, perfectly capturing the most exhilarating and frightening qualities of life. Additionally, it symbolizes my first literary love, poetry, and the person with whom I share that love, my grandmother. The tattoo itself is not only a source of inspiration, but of confidence; having this art on my body makes me feel beautiful.
As I planned my inaugural tattoo experience, I became curious about other Yalies’ relationships with their tattoos. Hoping to learn the silly, touching, and top-secret stories behind their ink, I began reaching out to students on campus.
Kylie Volavongsa, SM ’25, has five tattoos. Kylie spent her gap year embracing a wild-and-free, find-yourself mentality that culminated in her first tattoo. When I asked about the inspiration behind the tattoo, she laughed and admitted that it was dubious at best. On her bicep sits a small frog inked in red. It’s her favorite Soju brand’s logo. When I asked why she chose to get the tattoo in color, she told me that she wanted to one-up her friend Paige, who had recently started a sticker sleeve.
Aside from the frog, Kylie has since obtained a bright-green cicada and the blue face of a crying man, both from professional studios. “Sometimes we need to have a little serious moment,” she said as she rolled up her sleeve to show me the latter. Kylie also boasts two stick-and-pokes: a bird and a cute, blob-like creature named Ferg. “I want an arm full of little friends.”
The last thing I asked Kylie was if she would want more tattoos, and she responded with a definitive yes. In fact, she already has the inspiration for her next piece. While collaging over break, her friend gave her some magazine cutouts to use. One of the cutouts said, “Walk forward. I’ll catch you.” The words struck her. She loves the way they remind her of friendship and epitomize the beauty of solidarity.
*****
When Christian Oestergaard, BF ’25, was on his gap year, he served eight months in the Danish military. He got his first tattoo just days after finishing his service alongside three of his fellow national guardsmen. The tattoo is in a medieval, Gothic font on the inside of his bicep. He chose the Latin words, “Pro Rege et Grege,” meaning, “For King and People”—the creed of the Queen’s Guard. While he was anxious about the pain, it wasn’t nearly as bad as he expected; by the time the artist finished, he was already fantasizing about what he would get next. He made sure to warn me that once you get your first tattoo, “It is maybe a little too easy to get a second.”
When asked if he stood by his ink, Christian responded confidently that his first tattoo was one of the best decisions he ever made. He loves that it serves as a daily reminder of the discipline he learned in the military. To him, the words emblazoned on his arm embody the sacrifices that he made and reflect the reasons he’s standing where he is today.
In addition to his military tattoo, Christian has a rose on his upper bicep, which he got in New York City with friends. He confessed that his second tattoo was a bit impulsive, carrying less significance than the first. However, he approached its permanence with marked nonchalance. He told me that even if it seems silly, it salutes a cherished memory created alongside his friends. For Christian, a tattoo must have personal meaning. He explained, “I’ve got to associate the tattoo with something in my life. I don’t think you should get a tattoo just because it looks cool.” In the future, he is planning to get a tattoo of the date his grandfather died to honor his spirit and keep his memory close.
*****
Each of Elise Williamson’s, SY ’24, three tattoos has its own touching origin story. Right after graduating high school, Elise received her first tattoo as a matching piece with her mom. The tattoo, located beneath her collar bone, consists of the outline of a hand with a lip print on the palm. Elise grew up with a single mom and two sisters. Whenever Elise or her sisters would leave home for a sleepover or summer camp, her mom would make a paper cutout of her hand, put on red lipstick, kiss the paper hand, and sneak it into the girls’ bags. The tattoo of the kissed hand commemorates this tradition and the bond between the four women in her family. Both of her sisters also plan to follow the example of Elise and her mother, getting identical pieces upon graduating high school.
Elise’s second tattoo, a fish riding a bicycle on her bicep, is the one that raises the most eyebrows. Inked around six months after her first tattoo, this image serves as a visual representation of the Gloria Steinem quote, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Elise cites growing up with just her mom as a huge source of independence and confidence; Steinem’s words felt like an ideal way to honor the strength in her all-female family.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Elise acquired her third and final tattoo: two small lines of text beneath the crease of her elbow that read, “BIG WORDS SMALL MEN.” The tattoo abbreviates the words of Muhammad Ali, “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it.” Both Ali and Williamson grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Muhammad Ali Center provided Elise with an integral sense of community and mentorship as she explored her passion for activism. The tattoo pays homage to her hometown and the circles within it that kept her grounded throughout high school.
While Kylie and Christian have both gotten multiple tattoos within a year, Elise abides by a strict rule: she must sit on a tattoo idea for a year before she actualizes it. With a more conservative timeline, I wondered if Elise was warier of regret than my other interviewees. Elise hopes that by the time she might want to remove a tattoo, it will be a much simpler, speedier, and more painless process. “Probably like ten, twenty years from now—technology is advancing so quickly—if I get to a point where I regret it, more than likely they will have technology where they can just zap it off.” Despite this outlook, Elise truly doubts she will regret her ink as it revolves around her family and home city, which will never lose their importance. Elise claims that if she is caught up in tattoo regret at ninety years old, then she “isn’t living the life she should be.” She finds great power in being at a point in her life where she feels so strongly about something she wants it permanently on her body.
*****
Like those I’d interviewed before her, Claire St. Peter, DC ’24 got her first tattoo during her gap year. For years, Claire had wanted a tattoo, but she could never put her finger on a specific design. While living in Venice Beach, a friend introduced her to an L.A. tattoo artist named Tia Naayem, who specialized in digitally warping phrases to create artful abstractions.
One Tuesday afternoon in April, Claire was perusing Instagram, and she saw that Naayem had posted a message advertising a last-minute available appointment. Claire confidently swooped in, scrolling through Naayem’s feed to pick out a design. She decided to get an abstraction of the sentence, “Run your fingers through the back of my hair,” on her left bicep. Although Claire didn’t choose these words from scratch, she has retroactively found meaning in them. She doesn’t consider herself a particularly sexual or romantic person, but the phrase from which her tattoo originated reminds her to break out of her comfort zone.
It has been ten months since Naayem’s artwork first came to grace Claire’s arm, and she loves it more than ever. “To an outsider, my decision to get the tattoo might appear hurried, but in reality, getting this tattoo was the realization of one of my long-held desires. That afternoon was definitely a defining moment for me, because the choice to get this tattoo was one that I made by myself, for myself. It was a moment of pure self-love and independence.”
*****
Following my conversation with Claire, I spoke to my last interviewee: Audrey Hempel, TC ’25, who received her first tattoo about thirteen months ago. At the time, she had just moved across the country on a gap year, and similar to Kylie, a tattoo seemed like the ideal way to honor a new sense of freedom. She chose a California poppy on her ribs, which serves as a symbol of home.
Her second tattoo, a mountain range on her back, reflects her love of skiing. Audrey worked as a ski instructor at Park City Mountain during her gap year, teaching both children and adults to ski. When getting her tattoo, she asked the artist to make the shape of the mountains reminiscent of the famed Utah resort.
Audrey’s third venture into the realm of tattoos resulted in a three-for-one deal. She left the studio with a blue whale, killer whale, and whale shark on her hip. The trio encapsulates her passion for music, drawing on whales’ song-like vocalizations, as well as her affinity for the ocean. She also couldn’t help but point out that the tattoo looks “really sick.”
I once met a man who described his tattoos as a scrapbook of his life, and his outlook has since stuck with me. It seems that Audrey, in addition to Christian, has a similar view. She wrote to me that she considers her tattoos a catalog of her adventures; she collects a new one each time she moves to a new place. Showcasing art on her body transcends the realm of aesthetic value, providing her with a powerful avenue towards self-love. Tattoos allow Audrey to view her body as a canvas; she chooses to get tattoos on parts of her body that she hasn’t always loved, and they help her view her skin as beautiful and worthy. “Of course, there is always the fear that I will regret getting tattoos later, but honestly who cares?” Audrey wrote. “I try to live my life ending up with the right regrets.”
