Needles
Image Description: A small room with a blue medical chair covered by a yellow towel. The wall behind it has posters that read “WAR IS OVER!” and “STINK STANK STUNK.” There is a window on the left and a side table with medical supplies next to the chair.
The doctor’s office is not a comfortable place for many queer people. Between answering questions about sexuality at a young and vulnerable time and consultation forms not including the boxes that I needed to check, I felt like an experiment under fluorescent lights, writhing on crinkly paper. This apartment tattoo studio is somehow empty of that pain.
The Chicago tattoo community has brought me endless queer inspiration, providing colorful and liberated spaces that foster true wellbeing in those who find it to be lacking elsewhere.