You never know how much something will affect your life until it does. It can be music, books, friends, family… but in my case, it was a TV show. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It wasn’t just a show to me but something that shaped me into the woman I am today. As the awkward teens on the screen grew up, I found myself growing up alongside them. It wasn’t just a show to me, it was something that taught me, a young woman, that being strong and powerful wasn’t something to be afraid of.
Walking down to the tattoo parlour, jitters wracking my body, tiny sweat beads gathering on my hands, I still had no idea what I was about to get permanently sketched into my body. It had to be something that at least meant something or reminded me of the current period of life I was in. Cycling through all the options, I stopped on an idea. Buffy.
I had no idea what I wanted from the show, though. Seven seasons condensed into one tattoo is hard to incorporate, so I took to Pinterest. Pinterest, a social media platform saturated with tattoos, especially ones for fandoms. I typed in Buffy tattoos, and I could scroll for hours looking at the plethora of ideas and tattoos other fans had already gotten.
An iconic character associated with Buffy popped onto my screen. Many will know just by the phrase Grrr… Ughh… I describe him as my little zombie dude. The next thing I know I’m in the shop, sending through my design, running down to the mall to grab the cash and going under the needle. Lying on my stomach, all I could hear was the hum of the needle getting closer and closer to my skin.
Many people think the tattoo is silly, they don’t understand the reference or the meaning, but I know what it means to me and it acts as an identifier to other Buffy fans. It’s a symbol that connects me to the Buffy fandom and now forever connects Buffy to me. It may just be a tattoo of a silly little zombie to some people, but to me, it means strength, love and power. That is what Buffy represents, and now what I represent.
Though I may have been caught up with the whole tattoo of it all, I look back on the experience and realise the importance Pinterest played in that very moment. Of course I am a fan of the show and know the ins and outs of every scene of every season, but the tattoo artist or I could have come up with our own idea on what I wanted because a) he didn’t know the show and b) I was far to nervous for my creative brain to function. This got me thinking, why were there so many uploads of Buffy tattoos on the site and do other people use social media in the same way as I did to find these fan tattoos.
Taylah's Turbulence 