Disabled Aesthetics | Anyone Can Be Disabled

Done by good friend Dan Jones at Inktruzion in Three Bridges, Crawley

~side note~ my armpit is red because of the red ink

I think when people see a wheelchair they expect to see a certain aesthetic to the person who's sat in the chair. And when they see me, someone who looks pretty young, I think some people are a little more curious as to why I'm a wheelchair user; every person who is young, chronically ill and/or disabled has experienced this awkward situation enough times to count. But for me, it's when they see my tattoos and stretched ears, I see people giving me judgemental looks, people are well and truly confused. 'Did she have all these tattoos before she became disabled?' is usually what I imagine is going through people's heads when they're doing their fifth double take.

For a little while now I've actually been quite reluctant to have my arm and back on show, and even though I've wanted to stretch my ears bigger, I haven't dreamt of going through with it because I was worried about 'stepping' (no pun intended) outside the stereotypical image of a disabled person and for the life of me I don't know why. But now I think I understand, and now I know how stupid it is to care about what people may think about my situation. I worried that people who 'mattered' might question the fact I'm still getting tattooed, intentionally putting myself in more pain while I'm already suffering, and then questioning why I can't do other things, i.e. walking long distances.

You lose a lot of self confidence when long term, life changing things happen and it's only natural. You also have to let go of big parts of yourself, whether it's hobbies you can no longer do due to physical restrictions or maybe because you don't feel like the same person as before. For me, I had to give up my job, which I loved, I had to give up running, travelling, being independent, I could go on all damn day. I also had to stop getting tattooed for a long time. I had just started a huge back piece project that has not been touched in over two years, it was so frustrating. However, there was just something about letting go of the way I wanted to look, doing something that makes me feel beautiful, that I didn't want to give up on, regardless of how superficial it was.

I know I've already done a post about regaining confidence by adapting hobbies and passions but I don't think it can be said enough! Anyone can become disabled, anyone, so there's going to be disabled people who are young, old, of every ethnicity, modified, tattooed, think of any type of person you can and there's probably someone who is that and also disabled. And on the surface, that statement is quite sad, but it's also so empowering. Be who you are, in any way that suits you regardless of your limitations, because being disabled does not define you.

If being who you are is being tattooed, or it's something as testing physically, you're going to have to adapt that activity, but you'll never know if you can do it until you try!

I opt for getting smaller pieces to reduce the amount of stress being tattooed puts on my body, however if I do decide to get a bigger piece (like the rose) I will usually book two appointments: one to get the outline done, and then a second one to get the shading and colour done as I can usually only sit for two hours tops.