Pierced. Inked. Caffeinated. These are the bodies I’ve come to associate with the PNW. Perhaps because they weren’t prevalent in Eastern Montana, where I grew up. Nor were they prevalent in the Midwest when I lived there. I spent a season of my life in East Asia, and they weren’t commonly seen in the general population. But here? Said bodies are prominently woven into the social fabric.    

I’m neither pierced nor inked (but my body certainly wouldn’t function without an unhealthy amount of espresso running through its system). That said, I’m inspired by the pierced body, and the inked. When I was a kid my instinct was to camouflage, to “fit in” so as to not draw unwanted attention to myself. I’d learn later in life that I’m autistic, and I was masking to ensure my safety in environments that sometimes proved hostile to social difference.

When I think about the pierced or inked body, I imagine it knows something of liberation — that the person who welcomed the marriage of art and body possesses a specific type of freedom that long eluded me. While this project is conceptually about PNW culture, it’s also about the courage it takes to express one’s self differently. It’s an opportunity to explore the stories of unapologetic souls bold enough to be themselves as they walk through this world.