Maryville Inked

Stu­dents with Tat­toos

Tat­toos are a way for peo­ple to ex­press them­selves through art. Some get tat­toos to rep­re­sent a hard time in life, as a memo­r­ial for some­one im­por­tant or as a mes­sage they never want to for­get. What­ever the rea­son, every tat­too is im­por­tant, be­cause they rep­re­sent part of who the per­son is. Here are a few Maryville stu­dents with tat­toos of their own and the sto­ries of why they have them.

 

Celia Deck­el­man

• Deck­el­man, sopho­more, has two tat­toos she has got­ten in the past year. Her first one was the foot­print of her dog, Molly Grace, on her up­per back. “I wanted to get my dogs name and foot­print be­fore she passed away. She means a lot to me,” Deck­el­man said. Her sec­ond tat­too is a bible verse, Proverbs 31:26, on her ribcage.
• “Tat­toos are ad­dict­ing and I’m al­ready plan­ning my next one.” She plans to add the foot­prints of her fu­ture dogs down her back, fol­low­ing that of Molly Grace.

Sam Merlo

• Merlo, fresh­man, got her first tat­too this month, her dog’s foot­print on her foot. The foot­print has a dou­ble mean­ing, “It shows my love of dogs, and I am study­ing to work in an­i­mal as­sis­tive ther­apy so it rep­re­sents my life­long com­mit­ment,” Merlo said. “My dad does­n’t know, I’m too scared to tell him.”

 

Emily Hawkins

• Hawkins ju­nior, has two tat­toos. She got her first one, a cross and re­li­gious quote on her ribcage, when she was 18. It is a cross to re­mind her of a quote her grand­fa­ther al­ways told her, “As long as you wear a cross, God will al­ways keep you safe.” As for her first tat­too, “My mom did­n’t know, but now she likes it and is get­ting one of her own,” Hawkins said. Hawk­in’s sec­ond tat­too, a semi­colon but­ter­fly on her foot, is her fa­vorite. The semi­colon rep­re­sents hope and love for those strug­gling with de­pres­sion, sui­cide, ad­dic­tion and self-in­jury. Hawkins loves the idea of get­ting more tat­toos; “I want seven, it just seems like a good num­ber. I want one on my arm and wrist. Just lit­tle ones all over.”’

 

Dakota Bauer

• Dakota Bauer, se­nior, has a sleeve and a half of tat­toos. He got his first tat­too at 18, a half sleeve on his right arm. When asked about his fa­vorite tat­too, Bauer said, “Holy smokes, where do I start? Prob­a­bly my broth­er’s name on my right peck.” Dako­ta’s older brother passed away when he was young. “I don’t think I’m go­ing to get any more tat­toos. If I do, it would be a full chest piece, but that’s iffy,” Bauer said.

Whit­ney Kem­per

• Whit­ney Kem­per, sopho­more, has two tat­toos. She got her first one in 2013 when she was 16. “It’s an in­fin­ity sign for my cousin,” Kem­per said. Since she was 16 when she got it, she needed her par­ents’ con­sent; “They dropped me off and signed the pa­pers so I could get it.” She got her sec­ond one this sum­mer, “It’s a tur­tle I got on my foot while I was on va­ca­tion,” Kem­per said.