Her Tattoos Are Her Personal Post-It Notes

Berlin Patch has gotten a few submissions from people willing to show us their ink and share their stories.

One person, Sarah Cayer, has many tattoos, several different tattoo artists who have worked on her and a different story for each one.

She started with her astrological sign on the back of her neck, a sign shared by her and her late sister.

“Tattoos are very addictive,” Cayer said. “If you are going to mark your body permanently with this visual expression you should have good reasons. I am a fan of free expression and free thinking and I have gotten great feedback from people who think they are beautiful. I have also gotten comments from people asking how I could do this to my body; my simple response to them is I respect everyone’s opinion.”

Her back piece started small and has taken on many more layers.

“I loved vampires, but the pre-Twilight kind,” Cayer said. “So I have a vampire in a circle with the number 9 and two coy fish for my sister and I. When it was done I loved it but it looked too detached all by itself. So after I took a trip to Europe with my mother I took some of the design features from the architecture and then added filigree around the middle piece.”

She also has the infinity sign on her right wrist, flowers on both ribs, one for her sister and one for her father, the word ‘breathe’ on her abdomen and a novelty item on her lower abdomen.

She says her favorite tattoo is on her left forearm. There are the words “Strength, Courage, Honor, Loyalty.”

I have had a dysfunctional life and my teenage years were anything but what they should have been so I knew I needed to make a change,” said Cayer, whose chief tattoo artists are Shaun Gallant of Scallywags in Worcester, Katrina Gifford and Jason Cross. “Some people have Post-It notes on their mirror helping them with their direction in life. You can say this is a Post-It note for my life.”

Cayer has a daughter who will turn eight in November.

“She asks about my tattoos all the time and I think it has made her an open-minded little girl, which, to me, is the best gift I could give her,” said Cayer, a make-up artist who says her edgy look helps her get jobs. “She doesn’t judge people by the way they look and that is rare for children these days.

“I’m not worried about what I will look like when I get older with the tattoos. Hopefully I will live to be 70 or 80 and if I do and I am married or with someone at that point they won’t be with me for my rocking body. They’ll be with me because they love me from the inside out.”