As a travel nurse inintensive care units, Samantha was starting to feel so hopeless that it scared her.
“You want to make a difference, but you feel like youre not.”
There has to be."
Allure/Channing Smith
When she’s having a bad day or even a bad moment, she can look down and remember.
For people who struggle with anxiety disorders, these tattoos can be especially potent.
It tells you that youre weak or unworthy.
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For Samantha, anxiety tells her the sun is gone, and it won’t return.
But for some anxiety sufferers, tattoos have a place in their healing journey.
Natasha, 25, has had anxiety and other mental health issues since she was a teenager.
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She started going to therapy when she was 16 after struggling with depression and social anxiety.
Later, Natasha’s struggles morphed into panic disorder, which she says affects everything in her life.
The disorder makes it hard to leave her house because shes so worried about suffering a panic attack.
Courtesy of writer
This has also led Natasha to issues with self-medication and addiction.
And it’s not just the reminders that people appreciate about anxiety-related tattoos.
For Natasha, there was something powerful about taking control of her body.
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“Doing something purposeful with body modification is a great way to take back some of that control.”
“Doing something purposeful with body modification is a great way to take back some of that control.”
“Then there’s the kind that sends a message to others, the visible [kind].”
(Morgan Gatekeeper, a tattoo artist based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is responsible for the isosahedron.)
“I don’t even think its a lesson I’ll fully learn.”
But as she continues the journey, she takes her icosahedron with her.
On the inside of Jackie’s wrist is the word “love” in cursive.
