The Battlefield is Me – Presentation

The Battlefield is Me is a series of interviews done by Paula Dias and originally published in portuguese in 2018 in Brasília, Brazil. This work is being translated with the consent of the author.

People sit down and tell me a story.

They tell stories that end up with a tattoo, but that go through many places before that. They cross artistic references and family relationships; they go through mental ilnesess and break ups; they tell about body scars and mourning, about friends and about accepting your own body. And these stories are openly given, without insistence and without fear, answering the simple question: "Can you tell me about your tattoo?"

This book is about the stories they have told me. It is about the different ways people find to deal with adversities, and about the healing path they decided to walk. More than suggest a solution, to listen to what they have to say.

The Battlefield is Me came to light as a graduation project which sought to analyze the emotional impacts of a tattoo. On the way, I found people willing to share how and why they decided to make tattoos with therapeutic purposes, and how this affected their lives. The conversations ended up bringing much more than expected, because they were also willing to begin honest talks about difficult issues.

Tattoos may have an infinity of different meanings, changing according to periods of time, places, values and beliefs. They can designate a transition process, the belonging to a group, an identity, a protest, a relationship, a loss or a personal achievement, among so many other things. Here, they bring one more underlying meaning: the attitude over your own body and your own life's story. The will to declare ownership over yourself.

No matter the challenge, invariably, the battlefield is you. Our body is always with us, and in everything that happens, life leaves its marks - be those visible or not. And if scars are inevitable, our only choice left is to decide what to do with them. What will be their meaning, what will I think of them, to whom will I show them, all these questions stay open, waiting for an answer. And, against everything with which reality confront us, have control over your own body is an act of resistance.