Today: Mar 28, 2024

Inked Canvas: Nursing student finishes tattoo after life-changing experience

Lynn Wright is a sophomore at Southern Connecticut State University and is majoring in nursing.  She enjoys science and draws creative inspiration from the artist and director Hayao Miyazaki.

When did you first get your tattoos?
Wright: I mean I have another tattoo and that was on my eighteenth birthday then I started this one (her sleeve) on my twentieth birthday and I just finished it a month ago.

How long was the process though?
Wright: Over a year.

Where did you get the inspiration for this?
Wright: What I did is I thought of a concept I liked that represented something meaningful to me and I brought it to my artist and gave him like a basic outline.  So I said like okay I want to incorporate phases of the moon, moths and this kind of color scheme and he drew it on me.

What made you choose a night theme?
Wright: The main I guess you could say theme throughout the whole thing is representation of change and metamorphosis.  Obviously moths start as a larvae and then metamorphose into the adult body, so that representation is like a personal symbol of metamorphosis or change I went through.  Then I chose the phases of the moon because the same concept, change every month you know the full moon to the new moon.  So I have the moon wrapping around and then the colors also represent.  The top of my arm the moth is I guess you could say translucent it’s supposed to be kind of see through and as you go down it gets brighter and more alive.

Lynn Wright  Photo Credit: Dylan Haviland
Lynn Wright
Photo Credit: Dylan Haviland

What does the tattoo represent?
Wright: It represents a medical disease I overcame.

Can you tell me about that?
Wright: I had brain surgery, I had a brain tumor and had surgery and overcame that, so that was a huge life changing experience so that’s sort of what I took from it.  As far as being sick and pale and what the pale colors represent going into something bright and alive.

So you got it around that time?
Wright: I thought about it for a few years and finally finalized my ideas and was like okay this is what I want to do and I told my artist that whole story and everything and he kind of ran with the idea.

Overall, what do you think of tattoos as an art form?
Wright: It’s definitely one of the ultimate forms of self-expression because you especially if it’s something unique and thought out like that, only you are going to have something like that.  And every time I meet someone and I’m wearing short sleeves or something it’s a conversation starter, it kind of breaks the ice to who I am in like a really deep sense because you really wouldn’t ask those questions otherwise.  So definitely it’s an art story of your own.

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