Getting a tattoo can often be a deeply personal expression of something that someone wants to commemorate in their lives and seeing it might remind them of where they’ve been and provide them with inspiration to keep them going. Also, when someone else notices the tattoo, they may ask for the meaning behind it and so the person gets to share a part of themselves in the process of explaining this.
She wanted to share a special message.
So, when this student at George Fox University in Oregon, Rebekah Miles got this tattoo, she wanted it to be something to remind her of her daily struggle with depression all the while reflecting a completely differently message to the world around her. She was inspired by a series of ads by a suicide prevention group based in the Southeast Asian country called Samaritans of Singapore.
As a result, her tattoo is a mirror message because when you read it straight on, it says, “I’m fine”.
However, when she looks down upon it with her own eyes, it says, “Save me”.
Afterwards, she was worried about what her parents will think about her getting the tattoo and wanted to explain its meaning and message publicly to her parents.
So, she posted about it on Facebook.
“Dear mom and dad, please don’t kill me over this permanent choice. I want you to hear me out”. Then she proceeded to confess about her battle with depression and passionately described how the upside-down part of her tattoo reflects, “the nights I begin to cry because I feel so overwhelmed, even though everything is going right.” “Mental illness is serious, but so shamed in our society,” she continues, “…And that is seriously messed up. Mental illness is not a choice and will likely hit everyone at some point in their life. If it’s such a huge issue, why aren’t we having a conversation about it?”
Well, thanks to Rebekah, a conversation did begin after she posted this because it has been shared 350,000 times.
She even got replies from celebrities like Zooey Deschanel.
Also, Ashton Kutcher had something to say as well.
Rebekah was also interviewed on a few local news stations and for BBC radio. She was thankful to be able to inspire others to discuss this topic openly simply because she wanted to come clean to her parents about her tattoo online.
