Northern Utahns share the stories behind their tattoos
Clockwise from top left, Utah residents Sheniece Beller, Joe Orozco, Jessica Hollon, Denielle Schow and Jade Draper share their tattoos.
Sheniece Beller
Every tattoo has a story to tell. These five Northern Utahns share the meaning behind their body art.
Jessica Hollon, Ogden
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Jessica Hollon’s tattoo is an X-ray of her son’s chest from when he was 4 years old.
Tattoo: An X-ray of her son’s chest from when he was 4 years old.
Tattoo artist: Will XX, Blaque Salt Studio in Salt Lake City
Two years ago, when Hollon’s son was 4, he came to her and said, “My heart is in my throat.”
“I was like, ‘Do you have to burp? What are you saying?’ ” she remembers. “He was like ‘No, my heart is in my throat.’
“And I realized he had been playing with this little metal heart charm, and I was like ‘The metal one?’ and I turned into Momzilla, of course. He said ‘yes’ and we went to the nearest emergency room. I was afraid it was going to turn in his throat because it was real flat and I didn’t know where it was.”
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Jessica Hollon
Hollon and her son were on vacation in Northern Arizona at the time. It took 13 hours and a 100-mile trip to a second hospital in Phoenix before the charm was eventually removed.
“I’ve always wanted a tattoo that represented my child. It kind of, to me, symbolizes parenting in general. How a lot of it is scary and you don’t really know what you’re doing. Afterwards you can laugh at it, but at the time, it’s terrifying. It’s kind of just a reminder that even when bad things happen, silly or good things can come out of it. You just have to look at it differently.”
Joe Orozco, Roy
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Joe Orozco’s tattoo is the patch of the Army unit that he served in during the Vietnam War.
Tattoo: The patch of the Army unit, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, that Orozco served in during the Vietnam War.
Tattoo artist: Fredo Rivera, Legacy Tattoo in Ogden
Orozco was drafted and went to Vietnam in 1969, shortly after graduating from Ogden High School. He was assigned to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which had the code name, or call name, of Blackhorse.
He saw friends die in combat, but he escaped physical injury somehow.
“I just ducked a little quicker, maybe. … War’s ugly and, yeah, all I can tell you is I’m here by the grace of God. It was pretty crazy, pretty devastating, lot of ugly things. You know, you see your friends die, get killed in combat. It’s tough. It was tough, but here I am. What can I say?”
After a year in Vietnam, Orozco returned to Northern Utah.
“When we came back from Vietnam, we didn’t know what PTSD was. There was no word for it. There was no diagnosis for it. We knew something was wrong when we came back. We knew we weren’t the same person that left. We were doing a lot of really crazy, dumb things that normally you wouldn’t do. We were basically off. We were crazy. There was something wrong with us, but we didn’t know what it was.
“Society didn’t want to hear about it. They didn’t care. They didn’t want to recognize it. They just thought we were some crazy Vietnam veteran baby killers, you know. It was tough for me to get a job. At that time, society was not accepting Vietnam veterans.
“We did not discuss Vietnam in public with anyone, unless we happened to meet a friend that was there. We were basically shunned, so we kept quiet. We went on to continue fighting every day to try and make sense of our lives because there was no decompression. There was no nothing. We just came home. You were in Vietnam, and 24 hours later you were home. That was it. There was no stopping.”
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Joe Orozco
Orozco struggled for a year before finding help through Veterans Rehabilitation Assistance at Hill Air Force Base. Over the next decade, Orozco worked at Hill Air Force Base and earned his degree from Weber State University before moving on to work for NASA and the space shuttle program.
Still, he and fellow veterans were in pain.
“We would talk amongst each other and say ‘Hey, what’s this? What are you feeling? How come this is happening? How come I’m feeling this way?’ “
It was years before medical experts began talking about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Orozco was 45 or 50 years old.
Orozco had wanted to attend an 11th Cavalry reunion for years before he finally made it to the 25th reunion in Washington, D.C., in 2010.
“I talked with friends I was there with. We talked. We shared. … That reunion gave me a chance to go to the Vietnam Wall. And that brought a lot of closure to me, because I have friends on that wall. The whole reunion experience and being at the wall, touching it, feeling it, crying. You know, just, everything. The emotions that you feel are just incredible. It brought me closure. A lot of closure.
“While I was there, all these guys, they’re flashing their tattoos with the Blackhorse and stuff like that. They said ‘Where’s yours?’
“I just said, ‘It hasn’t been delivered yet. It’s on its way.”
He returned home and got the tattoo. He’d never wanted a tattoo before, never believed in them.
“It was 2010 and I turned 60. It was a birthday present to myself. It’s the only tattoo I’ve ever gotten.”
Jade Draper, Ogden
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Jade Draper’s tattoo is Sak Yant, a traditional tattoo from Southeast Asia made up of messages written in Sanskrit.
Tattoo: Sak Yant, traditional tattoo from Southeast Asia, made up of messages written in Sanskrit.
Tattoo artist: Ajarn Keaw, Bangkok, Thailand
Draper, who is from Taiwan, had heard in the past about “a magical tattoo from Thailand.” She thought it was interesting and pretty, but didn’t pursue it.
In 2011, she was experiencing a rough patch in her life and, as the year was drawing to a close, she began training to become a yoga teacher.
“I was studying a lot of things about the culture over there, about the mantras and Sanskrit stuff. So one day, I don’t know why, it just suddenly hit me. I wasn’t even looking (to get) a tattoo or anything, but one day I was meditating and doing all my yoga training stuff. I suddenly had this urge that I want to get this tattoo. Not like ‘I want to get A tattoo.’ I want to get THIS tattoo. I didn’t even know why.”
She started doing some research.
“Technically, it is a Buddhist tattoo, but I’m not specifically religious. A lot of Thai people have this tattoo actually as a protection. It has five lines and each line is a different sentence. The five lines basically have five aspects of life. A lot of different versions of it, like, by different monks might have slight different version and they will interpret it differently, but in general, basically the five lines … it’s about life, luck, health, family and your spirituality. Each line has a meaning to that aspect of your life.”
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Jade Draper
She was turning 30 in 2012 and decided to get the tattoo as a gift for herself. “When I went back home to Taiwan to visit family, I made a trip to Thailand and looked for this guy.” The “guy” was a monk living on the outskirts of Bangkok.
“This kind of tattoo is called Sak Yant. It means this kind of tattoo, like a magical tattoo that must be done by monks. Normal people can’t do it. Otherwise, it doesn’t work.”
“It does have some rules you are supposed to follow. You can’t be an alcoholic. You can drink, but occasionally. You can’t do drugs. You have to be respectful for your parents, your elders and teachers. You can’t cheat on your spouse. Just some things that you’re not supposed to do in your life or something you’re supposed to do in your life.”
The experience is unusual, as well. “You put an offering there, an offering to the monk, and then we started prayers. Basically, they want me to tell the deities why am I here today, what I am doing, and just hope that everything will go well, will go smoothly.”
The monk chants as he free-hands the tattoo on the skin, using the tap method rather than a machine. “He had two guys pressing me down the whole time to smooth out the skin as well.” Draper found it extremely painful.
“I think next time I go back to Thailand, I’ll go visit him again. Maybe get another tattoo or just get a blessing again.”
Denielle Schow, Huntsville
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Denielle Schow’s shoulder tattoo is built around a heart and her father’s name.
Tattoo: Shoulder tattoo built around a heart and her father’s name.
Tattoo artist: Fredo Rivera, Legacy Tattoo in Ogden
When she was 5 years old, Schow’s father, Stan, passed away. He had been sick, and unable to get a necessary heart transplant.
While in the Marines, he had his first name tattooed in capital letters on his arm. “I think he always got crap for that, like ‘yeah, in case you forget your name …’ “
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Denielle Schow
In 2008, she got the “STAN” portion of the tattoo and in 2013 the rest of the sleeve.
“I thought the heart was fitting. He needed a heart transplant so this is an anatomical heart with a couple … I like to call them daggers, but they’re arrows. My family, I was the youngest of eight, it was a hard time. So I feel like one arrow is for his passing and another (for another) heartbroke moment in life.”
Sheniece Beller, Ogden
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Sheniece Beller’s tattoo is a montage of foxes and flowers.
Tattoo: A montage of foxes and flowers on her calf
Tattoo artist: Haylo Jugler, Lucky Bamboo Tattoo in Layton
Beller came up with the original drawing as a tribute to her parents and grandfather.
“My mom’s favorite flower is a daisy and when I actually looked it up and did some research, I found out it’s her birth flower as well. So my mom is represented by the daisy, and then my father is represented by the rose. That’s his birth flower. My grandpa and I share the birth flower, lily of the valley. We’re both born in May.
“And so then I wanted to represent myself as well because there are different stages of me. When I was really really little, probably just a toddler until up around 4 or 5-ish, we lived with my grandpa. So the fox here is me climbing all over things, terrorizing him, destroying everything.
“Then my mom and I are pretty much best friends. We’re everything to each other and so this is the playful fox, the younger side of me that likes to go and hang out with her. We do things and have fun.
“And then I actually reconnected with my father when I turned 18. So the more mature, laid-back fox is up here by the rose because it was the more adult me that got to know him.”
Beller said she’s always identified with the fox. “Some people are dog people or cat people. I’m a fox person. They’re so curious and shy. We have a lot in common. It’s my spirit animal, if you will.”
How did her family react? Her grandfather has tattoos himself, so it was no big deal.
“My dad cried and my mom was kind of mad at me. My mom does not have any tattoos and she doesn’t agree with them, but she kept the original drawing. She said ‘I don’t really like that you put it on you forever, but I’ll take the drawing.’ So she framed it and it is actually in her house.”