Gender

How Tattoos Help Sexual Assault Survivors Reclaim Their Bodies

by The Daily Eye Team January 9 2017, 6:10 pm Estimated Reading Time: 0 mins, 38 secs

When Marti was 18 years old, she was raped by multiple men at a frat party. She was a virgin. "It happened in the beginning of my first semester freshman year," she recalls. "I was ashamed; I turned to drugs and alcohol because I didn't know how else to cope with the trauma of what happened." Now 34 years old, married, and living in Minneapolis, Marti enjoys cooking, ballroom dancing, and Lady Gaga. After hearing Gaga got matching tattoos with the sexual assault survivors who joined the singer onstage at last year's Oscar ceremony, Marti decided to get a similar tattoo. "I wanted to take back my body," Marti says. "Gaga was so brave, so I thought to myself, 'I can be brave too.'"

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