Editor’s note: Tat-Tuesday is a weekly series that features students around campus and their tattoos.

Photos by Mike McGraw | Daily Texan Staff

Stephanie Kent

Stephanie Kent, a first-year theatre and dance graduate student, wanted to bring a piece of her hometown with her when she moved to Texas for school. She said she finds comfort in the fact that no matter where she is, the cherry blossoms of Washington D.C. will always adorn her back.  

“I knew I was going to be moving far away, so I wanted to get a tattoo as a going away gesture,” Kent said. “There are cherry blossoms all over the national mall in D.C., so getting that tattooed on my back made me feel at home.”

Reed Hamilton

Computer science freshman Reed Hamilton has a matching tattoo with his dad. Following a memorable trip to Vegas for Hamilton’s 16th birthday, the father-son team decided to get inked together.

“While we were there, we came up with the idea to get matching tattoos [to] commemorate the trip,” Hamilton said.

The tattoo reads ‘joy’ in Hebrew, Hamilton’s father’s favorite language.

“My dad is a very Christian guy, so he has always read a lot of Hebrew texts from the Bible,” Hamilton said. “My dad took me on the trip as a learning experience, and the theme of it was how to be a happy person and find joy in life. That is why we decided to get ‘joy’ tattooed on ourselves.”

Gabby Randle

The Greek word “metanoia” is written across Gabby Randle’s forearm.

“I wanted to get the tattoo on my wrist, but the tattoo artist insisted that would cause it to get smudgy and look bad,” Randle said. “I listened and got it a little further up my arm, and I haven’t regretted the decision.”

Randle, a second-year theatre and dance graduate student, said she knew she wanted the tattoo to say something meaningful, eventually landing on the word “metanoia.”

“I chose ‘metanoia’ after a discussion that I had with a family friend who explained that it means ‘repent’ in Greek,” Randle said. “It’s a much less aggressive word, though, meaning more specifically that you’re never done replacing your heart for a holier heart and your mind for a holier mind.”