Plymouth Magazine-Winter24-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 17
Virginia Traxler
Dani Christensen
Maggie Tillman
Tattoo: Snake
Tattoo: Micah 6:8
Tattoo:“She Persisted”
When did you get this tattoo?
I got this tattoo as my first and only tattoo
when I was 67.
When did you get this tattoo? 2021
When did you get this tattoo?
I received this tattoo in May 2017, a year
after my husband left our marriage.
What is the significance of this tattoo?
I have spent much of my life in a search for
the feminine face of God. What happened
to the Mother God? Why did such shame
and guilt arise in Christianity? Why aren’t
women given equal voice and leadership in
my church? In the church in which I was
raised, women couldn’t equally participate,
and if there were any women pastors
anywhere, I didn’t see them.
In this Christian tradition, there was no
equality between men and women, and I
simply didn’t understand it. I eventually
grew up, left home, and read Betty Friedan’s
The Feminine Mystique and set off on a
journey to figure out what was wrong, and if
I could fit in anywhere. I ultimately returned
to Christianity, but I was changed. In my
search I found alternate interpretations of
many things, including the creation myth in
Genesis, that I hadn’t heard growing up. They
led me to different understandings. These
didn’t denigrate being a woman, but instead
lifted it up, and made sacred, womanhood,
motherhood, and a woman’s body.
The snake is a metaphor of transformation, and
it came to represent my own transformation
(shedding of the past, rebirth) and the power
of my own voice.
What is the significance of this tattoo?
The verse from Micah has always been my
favorite verse. I was raised Catholic, and I
think most people raised Catholic would
agree with me that we aren’t really taught
Biblical verses, so I didn’t learn it from
studying the Bible. But in church choir, we
sang a song called “Offertory.” Part of the lyrics
include…”And what does the Lord require of
you, but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly, walk humbly with your
God.”Something about that song has always
made me tear up and sat in my heart.
What is the significance of this tattoo?
To remind me in 2017 that I persisted, a
year after a life altering event. This tattoo
in 2024 reminds me that I have and will
continue to persist, through all of life’s ups
and downs. That I am stronger than I know.
That she persisted.
I’m a teacher-librarian, and as teachers, we
have to wear a lanyard around all day with
our id badge on it. To personalize mine, my
husband started buying me pins to put on
them — book characters the kids would like,
Disney pins from trips to Florida, a rainbow
to let my LGBTQ students know I’m there
for them, etc. He gave me a silver circle that
had carved into it: “Be: Just. Kind. Humble.”
As anyone who has a tattoo will tell you,
you’re always kind of contemplating if you
should get a new one. Someone told me once
that people either have one tattoo and they’re
done after that, or they have three or more.
People just don’t have two tattoos. I was at
the two tattoo stage and had been thinking
about what I might get for another. And I
also thought maybe I was ready to put one
in a visible spot. At the same time, my best
friend suggested we get new tattoos together.
But what would I do?
It was about that time that my silver pin
broke. I was so sad, and that got me thinking.
If I was going to put a tattoo in a visible spot,
what better to have there than a reminder to
myself of who I strive to be? It can’t break if
it’s always there on my arm.
Shawna Lode
Tattoo: “wip” spelled in yarn
When did you get this tattoo?
2022, at a scary joint in a Las Vegas strip mall.
What is the significance of this tattoo?
First, it’s an homage to my love for knitting.
I always have a knitting work-in-progress
(wip). Second, it’s a constant reminder to me
that I, too, am a work in progress. My tattoo
challenges me each day to strive to be the
best version of myself.
Plymouth Magazine 17
