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Sarah Whalen-Lunn first learned the art and skills of her own I帽upiaq heritage of tattooing only a few years ago. Feeling that she was destined to be part of the revival of this cultural practice, she began training in 2016. 鈥淚t was one of those things that really felt like my whole life had been leading up to it,鈥� she says.

Now, Whalen-Lunn not only inks other Indigenous women, but she also sports her own traditional markings. Three dotted lines run from the bottom of her lower lip to the tip of her chin, a line of dots runs down her neck, and more lines and dots adorn her hands.听

When asked about the meaning behind her tattoos, she quotes a fellow artist: 鈥淚t means everything to me and nothing to someone else.鈥� Although Whalen-Lunn maintains that there aren鈥檛 really enough words in the English language to fully explain the significance of her markings, she says Indigenous tattooing involves 鈥渁 lot of spiritual belief that long predates religion, that long predates colonization.鈥�听

Moreover, she is reluctant to explain the significance of her tattoos because 鈥渟ome of those meanings too, we have to safeguard them because of appropriation.鈥�听

She has good reason to protect the meaning behind the practice. During the Western colonization of North America, Christian missionaries used boarding schools to separate children from their parents and , including tattooing.听

Increasingly, Whalen-Lunn and other artists are reviving traditional tattooing within their communities. is a sought-after H盲n Gwich鈥檌n and Si膷angu/Oglala Lakota runway model, whose face鈥攃hin tattoos included鈥攈as graced the covers of many magazines, raising the profile of this cultural practice.听

鈥淭his is what we鈥檙e meant to look like,鈥� says Whalen-Lunn. 鈥淭his is such a huge part of how we say who we are and connect ourselves to our ancestors.鈥�听

When Ocean Gao, a New York鈥揵ased tattoo artist, first began tattooing, they realized most of their clients were people of the Chinese diaspora or, like Gao, had Asian heritage but lived outside Asia. Gao navigates their immigrant heritage through their art by being acutely aware of how colonial forces shape the way people of color are expected to function in the United States.听

Early in their career Gao wanted to focus on Chinese imagery in tattoos, but in recent years has resisted being racially pigeonholed. 鈥淚鈥檓 still trying to figure out what it means to be a Chinese tattooer who doesn鈥檛 want always to make Chinese imagery,鈥� Gao says.听

鈥淚 feel like a lot of people, specifically people who identify as Asian American, have wanted tattoos from me that kind of symbolize their Asian-ness and American-ness,鈥� says Gao. 鈥淎sians all have the experience of being asked 鈥榃here are you really from?鈥欌�� But the artist worries that indignant retorts of being born in the U.S. undermine the rights of immigrants.听

鈥淓veryone belongs here, because borders are fake and migration is a human right,鈥� Gao adds.听

Gao also believes everyone has the right to ink their skin as they want, and that tattooing is a 鈥溾�� that allows 鈥減eople to feel that they are becoming closer to who they imagine themselves to be.鈥�听

After COVID-19 restrictions began easing up in 2021, to get inked, and Gao remembers being surprised by the surge of people seeking tattoos compared to the pre-pandemic era. Ultimately, Gao came to the understanding that 鈥減eople just want to feel in control of their lives or their bodies in some way, and tattooing is a really straightforward way to get that kind of autonomy.鈥�

鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 really imagine doing anything else,鈥� says Tanner Minock, who identifies as a and co-owns Denver-based . Minock, like many tattooers, has adorned his own body with myriad works of art. He got his first tattoo at age 16, with his mother鈥檚 permission, and jokes that 鈥渋t鈥檚 her fault that I鈥檓 doing this right now.鈥�

Indeed, Minock鈥檚 mother, who is Chicana鈥攐f Spanish, Native American, and Mexican heritage鈥攑lays a large role in his life in terms of culture, food, and family.听

鈥淎 lot of Indigenous cultures in what we now know as the United States and other parts of the world have had tattooing practices for many, many years, a lot of them before prior contact of colonization,鈥� he says.

Minock sees tattoos as a way for him to reclaim his body. 鈥淭he more tattoos that I got, the more I felt like myself, which is weird because you鈥檙e not really born with your tattoos. It really is a way for you to tell your story.鈥�听

He鈥檚 also noticed the number of tattoo shops owned by people of color has sharply increased in recent years. Communities are attempting to 鈥渢ake back the art of tattooing and reclaim it as their own.鈥�

That includes changing the experience in tattoo parlors. Minock recalls that before he became a tattoo artist, a lot of his experiences at tattoo shops were negative. 鈥淭hey were in a very hypermasculine environment,鈥� he explains, saying he found it 鈥渁wkward, a little intimidating, and sometimes scary to enter those spaces that are straight-white-male dominated.鈥�听

Today, the majority of Minock鈥檚 clients are queer, but he also sees more people of color getting inked. 鈥淎s a tattooer, you cannot limit yourself to tattooing only white skin.鈥�听

Minock was immersed in his mother鈥檚 culture while growing up and sees his own tattoos as a way for him to tell his story and that of his family and cultural heritage. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way for me to come back into my body and take ownership of that,鈥� he says.

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Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of听大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of听Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice听(2023) and听Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence听(2005). Her forthcoming book is called听Talking About Abolition听(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014听TEDx talk听of the same name.

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