We are often tied down, trapped by our own beliefs, and blinded to the true reality.
Cass writes:
My Bondage Girl tattoo is often mistaken for some sexual
meaning but to me it is all about being trapped. I drew her when I was only 14
and looked at her every day.
She reminded me of just how much I felt powerless,
tied-down, stuck in my own body.
Bind-folded, she saw no future.
Facing depression, mental health issues and eating disorders, I weighted
only 82 lbs and developed Osteoporosis at 16.
It started started as a
child with a gym teaches saying I was too fat to do gymnastics. About the same time I found my in sister’s diet pills. I began to
live in my sister’s shadow – stuck in own body – but trying to change
to someone else. Reaching out I found myself in a cruel
relationship with a much older man, got pregnant and had an abortion. Life was very hard, I was a mess. I began doing drugs and started cutting and
going further down the road of self-abuse.
Four
years later at 18, tattoo artist Robert Person inked my Bondage Girl onto my
arm.
I was her: Trapped, Tied down.
Her image
was now permanent,
just like my condition.
Only a miracle could cut us free.
Cass did find her miracle.That miracle turned out to be her daughter
but that’s a different tattoo story.
The next instalment in Tattoo Tales.