03/01/2026
My Body. My Heritage.
This spine tattoo carries my heritage, memory, and belonging.
For a long time, my Filipino roots were denied.
Today, I carry them visibly and proudly — as history, as truth, as lineage. My father passed away on December 5th, 2024.
One year later, on December 6th, 2025, I chose to place this tattoo along my spine as an act of remembrance, reconnection, and honoring where I come from.
Rooted in traditional Filipino tribal art, thoughtfully reinterpreted in a modern way with subtle Maori/Polynesian influences, this design is made up of symbols that have been carried on Filipino bodies for generations.
At its center is the Sampaguita flower, the national flower of the Philippines, symbolizing purity, devotion, and quiet strength. Surrounding it are traditional Filipino elements such as mountains, plants, waves, and the kappi crab—symbols that have been tattooed by various Philippine tribes for generations, each carrying stories of land, water, resilience, and survival.
Above the Sampaguita sits the Lingling-o, a pre-colonial symbol of identity, protection, femininity, and strength. Below it, the Baybayin script spells ninuno—ancestry—honoring the generations before me. Both the Lingling-o and Baybayin are pre-colonial, existing long before erasure, occupation, and imposed narratives.
This tattoo is deeply personal. My mother is white, and she rejected everything Filipino in us as children. Growing up, this part of me was denied, minimized, and treated as something to be erased. One year after my father passed away on December 5th, 2024, I chose—on December 6th, 2025—to mark my body with what was never allowed to live freely.
This tattoo is reclamation.
A remembrance.
A declaration of pride.
Endless gratitude to the amazing artist at , who translated my ideas into this powerful design with such respect, skill, and sensitivity. Thank you for honoring my roots and bringing them to life so masterfully.
I carry my ancestors with me.
On my spine.
In my body.
In my becoming.
