Photo by Andrew Johnson
“Wear your heart on your skin in this life.” – Sylvia Plath Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose and Diary Excerpts
Tattoos are deeply personal. I can’t remember a time I saw two people with the same tattoo, which is why this image really struck me.
Not only are the tattoos visually similar, they also have a similar message. The top tattoo reads “Nothing can silence the voice of freedom” in Arabic.
These two guys have wildly different lives. Andrew followed his sister to North Dakota from Wyoming, while his co-worker is a recent immigrant from Iraq who arrived here under radically different circumstances. Yet the statement they chose to make was the same.
Yes, tattoos are about individual expression. But in this case, they were also about connection. And that makes me happy every time I look at this photo.
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