Teresa Garratty: How people respond to my new deaf tattoos

At the beginning of the year, I had zero tattoos. I now have four and yes, I got them all at once…oops!

Tattoos are often a form of self expression and represent a part of who you are as a person. Your passions, things that give your life meaning and make you who you are. Not surprising then, that two of mine relate to my deafness!

I have one very small “audio off” symbol behind each ear. It’s not much, but it suits me down to a tee. It’s dorky, it’s cheeky, it’s funny and of course accurate in the sense that I’m deaf in both ears!

When I decided to get “inked” (I’m street as heck btw), I knew that this was definitely what I wanted. I’m not exactly politically or culturally “Deaf” (though some of my articles might prove otherwise *gulp*) but I do take a sense of ownership about my deafness these days.

I’m not ashamed or embarrassed by it, I don’t feel inferior or incapable for it and if anything, becoming deaf has made me a better person in many ways.

So I’m more than happy for people to spot my tattoos and decipher that the reason I’m giving them a blank stare is due to lack of sound and not lack of intelligence…mostly.

So far, I’ve had almost nothing but compliments about my tattoo choices. We’ll skim over the part where my mother thought my Blade Runner unicorn was a llama *ahem* but even my nanny loves my deaf ones and wouldn’t mind them for herself!

Notice before how I said “almost”? Yeah, there’s always one isn’t there? And this someone seemed to go on a roller-coaster of emotions over my two tiny tattoos.

At first it was… “OMG! I was thinking about getting something similar! Your tattoos are really cool” to “I was talking to my friend and we think Deaf people are gonna be annoyed by your tattoos because you’re not born deaf or even big “D” Deaf. They don’t really suit you.”

Interesting turn of events. Why would someone say this about something permanently engraved on my skin? Was she jealous that I had it done before her? Did she envy that I’m comfortable enough in my deaf identity to be positive about it? Immaturity perhaps, and an unwillingness to tolerate other peoples differences? Who knows! Maybe she was having a bad day.

Well, whatever the reason, I did toy with the idea briefly. What if people got offended? What if they really did think I don’t belong? What if I’m not the same as them? Which ultimately just made me love my tattoos even more because yes, I am different, I am unique and you won’t find a single soul to replace mine.

That’s all fine by me because I know that it’s underneath all those superficial differences that we find a real common ground, a bond that means something more. I can call myself hard of hearing, deaf, Deaf, deafened.

Whatever. It doesn’t matter, you’ll see me how you want to see me. All that matters is how I see myself.

*cue Simple Minds – Don’t You Forget About Me*

Read more of Teresa’s posts (with cartoons!) by clicking here.

Teresa is a freelance film maker, photographer and full time cynic. At school, she was voted “Most likely to end up in a lunatic asylum”, a fate which has thus far been avoided. Her pet hates are telephones, intercoms and all living things. Follow her on Twitter as @TGarratty