Snake Eyes

Tattoo by Rachel at FoxDen Tattoos May, 2025

This tattoo is complicated. After having a secondary top surgery and a clean bill of health related to cancer my chest was left forever changed and affirmed for the second time. The tattoo I had before was mostly in tact but parts were cut out. I genuinely had no idea what I wanted to do except to add something to the scar line that made me feel powerful and embodied. Rachel is one of the people I trust with my body so when she showed up for our session with some wild art ideas it all made sense. We ended up choosing these lizard, dragon, snake-esque eyes with rainbows and glitter coming out of them. It is wildly different from what I had before but on my body it makes sense. Playing into the wild, the magical, the things that make people look and go “huh?” are all apart of who I am. In fact as time has gone on I live for the “huh?” moments because my body and I don’t exist to make sense to you or anyone or to serve anyones aesthetic but my own. It is moments like these that I am reminded that my body is mine, it is my choice what I do with it and to it, it is my choice how I feel affirmed because it is mine and only mine. None of you need to live in it and survive in it but me. Maybe that’s what tattoos like this come down to, a sense of empowerment and embodiment, something that feels uniquely yours, that remind you, you aren’t a mindless drone for the cis-hetero patriarchy to chew up and spit out in another death camp. Maybe it’s the reminder that we’re here, always have been, always will be.