Mary: The Caged Bird Finds a Reason To Sing

Mary, 24

Sometimes the prettiest tattoos are to remind us of our lowest points. This is the story of finding a silver lining behind Mary’s tarot card style oriole tattoo.

Four years ago, Mary moved to Baltimore. Four years later she has yet to enjoy her residency. So, two months ago she decided to immortalize that feeling.

“I have mixed feelings about Baltimore and living here as long as a I have. I really don’t like it here and I’ve gone through a lot of shit because of that and overcome a lot of emotional hurdles from being here and being as unhappy as I have been.”

Mary's oriole tattoo was done at Read Street by Hunter Spanks, an artist Mary regularly goes to for her tattoos.

“I still don’t regret moving here because it brought me to Richard (fiancé), it brought me to a lot of my friends. So, I got it as a reminder that as much as I hate it here it still shaped my life a lot.”

Life takes us wherever it wishes to take us, and the way that we face the situation is what truly shapes us.

“It gives me a sense of peace and relief that I didn’t just waste 4 years of my life.”