Jayne Whyte's Portfolio

I am not writing this to justify my reasons for getting a tattoo, but to explain why I really do need to get one or maybe two. If you know me very well, you will understand this is not an easy one to write.

One of the things I remember very well about my father’s mother was her skin, the designs on her hands and the boxes of Cabin biscuits she kept under her bed. The designs on her skin were bold and beautiful. She was a beautiful woman with lovely tattoos. In those days, skin markings were not regarded as tattoos but they were.

Body tattoos are often treated as decorations, ink on skin or fashion accessories, but for many people, tattoos are not just casual adornments. They are records. They are markers of survival, grief, healing, rebellion, remembrance, and growth. They are stories written in a language that does not need words.

Recently, there has been a local outrage over a popular Nigerian pastor who inked his skin. Interestingly, his video justifying his tats raised more eyebrows. You know what I mean? Tattoos sit at the intersection of pain and creativity. They emerge from difficult places, yet they are shaped into something meaningful and, often, beautiful. They remind us that human beings are constantly interpreting their experiences and searching for ways to express them.

My take is that people carry battles that are invisible to everyone else. Betrayal that changed how they trust. Divorce or separation that forced them to rebuild their identity and altered their sense of home. The death of a loved one that split life into a before and an after. These experiences do not simply fade or go away with time. They leave emotional imprints. For some, tattooing becomes a way to externalise what cannot be easily spoken.

There is also a quiet defiance in choosing to mark the body with one’s story. Society has long attached assumptions to tattooed people. They are labelled as reckless, rebellious, or unprofessional. These judgments often ignore the emotional depth behind the ink. Many tattooed individuals are thoughtful, compassionate people who have simply chosen a visible way to process their experiences.

Judging someone based on tattoos reduces a complex human being to a surface impression. It overlooks the reality that pain, healing, and transformation are universal. Tattoos make that journey visible, but the journey itself is shared by everyone in some form. The difference is that some people choose to carry their milestones where they can see them everyday.

Tattoos can serve as reminders of survival. They can honour love that continues beyond death. They can celebrate personal victories that no one else witnessed. In this sense, tattooing is not about glorifying struggle. It is about acknowledging it and choosing to move forward with intention.

Kindness becomes especially important in this context. When we see tattoos, we are often seeing fragments of someone’s story without knowing the full narrative. A design that looks decorative might represent a turning point that saved a life. Approaching others with empathy rather than judgment creates space for understanding. It recognises that everyone is navigating something unseen.

And to my unseen, we get a tattoo.

Cheers!