Alice Ashrawi never made plans to get a single tattoo, but she has three.

Ashrawi, a senior photocommunications major at St. Edward’s University, describes her tattoos as “dinky” and simple.

“They’re little tattoos, and they’re not like pivotal moments of my life,” Ashrawi said. 

Ashrawi got her first tattoo when she was 18.

“It was like she was just fitting it in: do you want to go get coffee? Do you want to go get a tattoo?” Ashrawi joked.

She had the idea of getting bird silhouettes tattooed on her rib cage for a while, but she had not planned on getting it that day. It was spur-of-the-moment, which is how Ashrawi believes getting a tattoo should be.

Her second tattoo happened in much the same way. One day after work last summer, Ashrawi and a co-worker got yin-yang tattoos together. 

It turned out that Ashrawi was the first person the tattoo artist worked on. 

She says the tattoo didn’t turn out great, but she isn’t worried because it’s small and and not too visible on her ankle.

Ashrawi’s little sister was the one who pointed out that the dark side of the yin-yang tattoo is bigger than the light side. 

This made her tear up because it reminded her of her own struggle with anxiety.

“Yin-yangs are supposed to be the good in life and the bad in life, and it just felt kind of reflective of what I’d been going through,” Ashrawi said. “I’m always going to think it’s an awful tattoo, but I’m also still going to cherish it a little bit.”

Ashrawi’s most recent tattoo, which she got this past summer, serves as a memoir of her road trip to Asheville, North Carolina with her best friend. 

They decided to get a tattoo together  after hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

The tattoo is simple mountain outlines, but Ashrawi says they used a picture that she took as a reference for the color gradation. 

“The cool thing about it is that they’re different; they’re not the exact same, and we got them in different places, and the coloring is different on each of ours,” Ashrawi said. “So, it’s matching tattoo but also to our own specifications.”

While her friend wants to add the ocean on one side of the mountain outlines, Ashrawi plans to turn her tattoo into a reference to the song “Passenger Seat” by Death Cab For Cutie. 

Ashrawi advises not to over think a tattoo.

“If you just want to get a tattoo because you think it’s cool, get it because you think it’s cool. There doesn’t have to be a reason,” Ashrawi said.