“I’m on a transformation journey. I recently got divorced. I have two wonderful kids. And I realized it’s important for me to become more in tune with who I am.

“Leaving a relationship to focus on me has been a challenge. But the wisdom that has come out of that, it’s like, I’m enjoying who I am. I’m learning more about myself.

“The goal is to be free. When I turned 30, I got my first tattoo. It’s just the words Be Free, but it symbolizes so much. It means letting go of past versions of me — how I viewed myself and how others viewed me — and embracing my most authentic self. That means being true to myself, despite what others may think or feel. Despite the path set out for me or the path I set for myself.

“To become the best version of me, I have to heal. I have to learn. I have to do the work.

“I’m 31, and I feel like I’ve done so much in life. But I still have so far to go. Sometimes I overthink that part, and I don’t appreciate how far I’ve come. So now I try to practice gratitude. It’s made me more centered. Because when I reflect on my life, I have achieved a lot.

“My goal now is balance. Balancing who I am on the days when I love myself and on the days I don’t feel so great about myself. We all have flaws, which we try to keep hidden from the world. But they’re still part of who we are. Instead of hiding them, maybe we should try embracing them. Because even though I may think I’m flawed in so many ways, another person may see beauty in that.

“Journaling has helped. I’m always in my head. I’m always thinking. So it allows me to get the majority of those thoughts down on paper. It’s a way to release those emotions, process them, meditate on them, and move on.

“Sitting by the water and journaling is a practice I want to do more often. Just for healing and clarity. I’m searching for that inner peace.”

— Synethia Edinborough

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“Before I went to state jail, I knew that two of these tattoos were affiliated with gangs. The dog paw print is for the Bloods. The star is for Tango Blast. But I was never gang affiliated. That’s never been my M.O.

“They told me, ‘You know what this means, right? If you get these, and if you ever get put down, they’re going to take them from you.’

“The paw print is for a dog I had named Diablo. Someone shot and killed him. I had another dog named Ava. Someone ran over her. My people are real dog lovers. That’s why I got the tattoo. And the star, I just liked it. It looked cool.

“So I knew going in that I’d have to fight for the right to keep them. When I got there, I decided to find out who the boss of each gang was, and talk to them. I told them, ‘Look, I’m not gang affiliated. But you’re not taking my tattoo. Whatever we’ve got to do, we can rock and roll.’

“What they did was put me in a restroom with three other guys, and we had to fight for 30 seconds. Then a second group of guys came in for another 30 seconds. I had to take a beating for carrying that tattoo without being gang affiliated.

“I fought back. Because if you just sit there and get your ass beat, they’ll know you’re weak. That’s called a heart check. I had to do that for one gang, and then the same thing for the other gang.

“The way they put it to me was, you knew what you had to do to get that mark off you. Now they let every group in the pod know, hey, he already got his 60 seconds. So anybody else who sees me with that tattoo, and they try to shake my hand but I don’t shake properly, they’re not going to look at me no crazy way. They’re going to be like, OK, he’s the guy from that pod who already got his 60 seconds.

“To be honest, it went a lot better than I thought it would. Some people were like, ‘You just got in here. Why are you already fighting?’ Well, because I got these tattoos, and I’d rather get it all out of the way early on.

“Although I was just a young guy, I was able to handle my business. People came up to me after that with a lot more respect. It made my time go by a lot easier.”

— Sergio Yepez

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• Staying strong key to surviving in jail

• Finding a job, while trying to find himself

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“The appeal? I guess it’s just the fantasy world. If you think about it, you kind of want to be in that world sometimes. I’ve always had a big thing for fantasy. Fantasy books, fantasy shows, games, all of that. It’s just the idea of immersing yourself in this other world. The people who create these entire fantasy worlds, it’s really amazing to see what stuff comes out of their heads. You can get lost in it. I know I do sometimes.”

— Gabriel Dye

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• Greek, Roman architecture ‘appealing to the eye’

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“I started getting tattoos when I was 18. Luckily I had friends who knew how to do them, so I just let them experiment on me. I think the last time I got one was 2013. I have a lot of them. The only thing I’ve got left to do probably is my back.”

Which tattoos are most meaningful to you?
“My left leg has this Japanese theme. It really represents my Asian heritage. When my dad was in the Army, he met my mom while serving in Korea. I was born there, but I came to the states when I was about 1. My parents got divorced, and my dad got custody of me.

“The last time I saw or talked to my mom, I think I was 5. But I’m still interested in that part of my heritage. I read a lot about it, like history books, and I try to learn words every now and then. It’s still important to me. It’s part of who I am.

“My dad is African-American. My mom is Korean. That’s like two different cultures, and I’m part of both. I think that’s pretty cool.”

— Devon Terrell

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• Young realist enjoys living a carefree life

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“I don’t draw as much as I used to, mostly because I can’t find the inspiration for it. Or I can get inspired, but my hands don’t seem to want to work with my brain. I see it perfectly in my head how I want it to be. But when I go to draw, it comes out looking like something just died on my paper.

“In high school, I thought I wanted to be a tattoo artist. But then I figured out that art wasn’t my true passion. It’s something that I enjoyed doing, but I just didn’t have the patience to learn from my mistakes. I couldn’t handle drawing something and it not turning out the way I wanted. That really ticked me off to the point where I was like, you know what, I don’t like drawing anymore.

“I did discover that I like giving massages and that I’m pretty good at it. And it’s something I can do to help people, so I decided that’s what I’ll try to do.”

— Chasity Stacy

The post For lack of patience, she gave up on art appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“The toughest part about dealing with my autoimmune illness is just the unknown. A lot of people wear those little ribbons and bands to represent what illness they’re dealing with, but I decided on this tattoo. It’s a little bird with the word ‘free.’ I wanted something to remind me that you don’t have to live in fear. You can be free from it.“

“In 2012, I was in this place where I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. My sister had a best friend who lived in Italy, and she asked me to go with her to visit. So I got my passport and decided that since I always wanted to go to London, I would go there by myself for a couple of days before I went to Italy. That was an incredible experience to just pick up and go to a foreign country on my own. I’ve tried to do other things that I would never have done before.

“The hardest part is living in the moment and not worrying about the future. The last couple of years, I’ve worked really hard on that. When something happens, I try not to project too much fear. I just think, this is happening and I’m going to get through it. I’m going to be OK.”

— Cynthia Dawn Clevenger

As a member of the Clear Creek Girls, she sings and plays the fiddle and mandolin. Her high-pitch voice is featured in the song, “Poor Wayfaring Stranger.”

(Note: Cynthia Dawn Clevenger passed away on Jan. 26, 2022.)

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• She’s bald, beautiful and no longer ashamed

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“Most of my tattoos don’t really mean anything, but I have two that do. One is my daddy’s name and one is my cousin’s name. But I don’t talk to my cousin anymore. She’s actually the reason me and my ex split. I caught them on the couch together.

“At the end of the day she’s still my cousin. We were always really close and I still love her to death. If she ever called me, I’d be there for her in a heartbeat. But let’s just say she won’t be invited over for Thanksgiving very often.”

— Megan Marksberry

The post Tattoos help tell some of her life’s stories appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“It’s kind of self-explanatory. The little blue arrow means a boy got my heart. The knife that goes through shows that he stabbed or broke it. I’m engaged now, so it doesn’t really apply to my current situation. But it’s there to remind me that you can’t always trust everybody.”

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“My grandmother and I had the same birthday, June 29. We were really close. I spent a lot of time with her. Every year, we celebrated our birthdays together. We would eat shrimp and crawfish, hang out with the family. It was pretty cool.

“Then she went to sleep one day and didn’t wake up. We hadn’t spoken in about a month because I was busy working construction, so it hurt me a lot. Now I wear this bracelet of hers and I got this tattoo. It helps keep her memory close to me.”

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“I got this tattoo around the time of my divorce. It was a much-needed thing. I have an issue with change, so I put it off for a really long time.

“If you research the octopus, you’ll find it can adapt to change really well. If you chop off one of its limbs, it’s going to grow back. If you change the temperature of the water, it adjusts. So, this was sort of a reminder that I’m not going to die, so just chill out and adjust.”

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• Home-schooling kids pretty easy decision

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