After a long struggle with infertility and miscarriage, Katie Tonkiss chose to have two small hearts tattooed on the inside of her right wrist. The hearts are more than decorative — they symbolize her bond with the two children she and her husband ultimately adopted. They also represent a way of reclaiming control over her body.
"I felt that this was something I could choose to do after such a long time of having no real choice," says Tonkiss, 40, a senior lecturer in sociology at Aston University in England. "It was an expression of celebrating after a lot of self-blame and frustration."
Tattoos' popularity among women reflects changing attitudes about a practice that once was male-dominated. Today, many women are choosing tattoos as important signifiers of empowerment, identity and personal values, experts say. Frequently, they use body art to honor something or someone or to cope with trauma.