People continue to ask me why I get tattoos and why I love them so much. "What is the appeal to them?" people ask. Personally, there are a couple of reasons why I get tattoos.

It is one of my freedoms. I have the right to get them. Why not use that freedom of expression? I view myself as an artistic person. I love art, I love admiring it, I love doing it, I love expressing it and I like it on my body. I show my love for art in many was. One of those ways being the tattoos I continue to get on my body.

It's my body. I don't care what other people think. I have had to battle my body everyday because of my illness. So, what I wear and what I put on my skin is a way for me to have some control over my body.

With every tattoo I get, I feel more whole as a person, as an individual. Someone said that it is or must be a "psychological thing" to get a tattoo, but I don't agree with that. It is an expression of who I am as an individual. And having an illness means I don't have wellness. I am missing out on that important aspect of my life—to be healthy. I don't think that I will ever feel completely whole as an individual but every time I do certain thing's, one of them being getting a tattoo—I feel more whole.

Each individual tattoo has a story. Just like a person, we all have many stories to be told. Although I only have three tattoos, so far, each one of them represents a part of my life.

My first tattoo I got with my mom as a 19th birthday present. That itself makes it special. She also has the same one and she got it right before I did. It is a silhouette of a mother holding a daughter connected with the infinity symbol and there are three blue flowers at the bottom of the symbol.

The next two tattoos I got, I got them on the same day. I got them both on the same day because my friend/co-worker gave me one of his Groupons that he didn't want to go to waste. I essentially got them about 50 percent off, which in college and just in general is amazing!

The first one I got is two big outlines of roses on my shoulder. People ask me if I am going to get them colored in, but I am not. I am not because the roses represent a lot of the trauma and darkness that has happened in my life. Life can be this beautiful thing but there is a lot of emptiness and darkness, that is why I am leaving them uncolored. Sometimes life feels like it is empty and uncolored. I also think that the roses represent me. I am beautiful on the outside but with my illness and trauma I am empty on the inside, I am numb. I could go on and on about the roses. They mean a lot to me and that is probably why I am going to get more.

The second tattoo I got that night is a heart with a heart beat leading out of it right under my left collar bone over my heart. I got that to signify my chronic and very invisible illness I live with. I live with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome and it affects my daily life. I got it to subconsciously make my illness more visible to people. Sort of as an awareness tattoo, for when people ask what my tattoo means.

Those are the reasons why I get tattoos. It is about freedom of expression and using your body to tell your story. I don't just get them for no reason and you shouldn't either.