Scars are part of life. But when the scar is caused by self-harm or inflicted by others, it can be devastating to carry those daily reminders of past traumas. An Amherst tattoo shop uses body art to help transform marks from the past.
Mending a scarred body
In a purple studio room at Phoenix Ink and Beauty, Angelique Agnew used a tattoo gun to draw a series of vines and vibrant flowers on the chest of her client, Lynn Schmitz, of South Amherst. The designs were meant to cover scarring left from a required breast reduction.
“The reason for the breast reduction was the neck pain, the shoulder pain, all that," Schmitz said. "And then you have this ugly leftover mess, right?"
Schmitz had been coming to the shop since late 2023 for work on covering the scarring.
“It really makes you feel a whole lot better emotionally, mentally," Schmitz said. "Because you don't really see it anymore.”
She hoped that six more sessions may complete the scar artwork coverup.
The art of healing
The work is part of the shop’s Art of Healing program. People can apply to the program if they have physical and emotional scars due to self-harm, surgeries or human trafficking. If accepted, they will have their tattoo art provided for just the cost of the ink and tattooing supplies. The artist provides their time and art for free.
Agnew, who owns the all-women staffed shop with her husband, said the Art of Healing program stemmed from her own battles with self-harm, including cutting — where someone cuts their skin to gain a momentary sense of relief from their emotional pain.
"This program originally was for self -harmers," Agnew said. "I will cover your scars for you if you're ready to change that chapter in your life.”
She said the program grew and expanded to include scarring from surgery and human trafficking.
"I actually had a young lady come in who was a self-harmer," Agnew said. "But the reason she came in was because at 16, she was kidnapped by her boyfriend, taken to California, and for 12 years, was sold in human trafficking."
Agnew said the boyfriend had branded the girl's chest. Once she escaped, she returned to Ohio, where she struggled with the markings she had to see on her skin every day.
"So we covered it for her, and she regularly messages me and lets me know that she's here because of that," Agnew said.
A growing number of tattoo shops nationwide have embraced the concept of tattoos as healing for trauma.
A 2023 study from the University of Oklahoma and University of Memphis confirmed that tattoos provided a sense of agency and bodily reclamation to sexual assault survivors.
Unseen trauma
Another Art of Healing client, Ronald Cantrell, of Elyria, was getting a golden yellow koi swimming up a waterfall tattooed on his right arm and hand.
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“I am an alcoholic but I'm sober at the moment," Cantrell said. "But the tattoos represent pretty much my journey going through until today. It's covering up scars from the way that I feel.”
Cantrell has been sober for 24 years now, but the emotional scars are still being mended.
“I know other people, it's not their cup of tea to have a hand tattoo," Cantrell said. "But for me, it just symbolizes me being sober and growth. A lot of things that I do now, I would never do in my drinking life.”
Agnew said she currently has 25 clients in the program and expects that number to grow and she continues to take pain and replace it with beautiful art, one tattoo at a time.
"My time is for them," she said. "I feel good knowing that they can grow from that.”
