The Story Of Megan About Tattoo

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Megan, a student reluctant to write in class, created a tree tattoo to symbolize her complicated family history (see Figure 1). Because we asked students to write about the tattoo's symbolism Megan wrote a length about the impact of her family history on her life:

My family tree is complicated, so complicated that to explain it at length wouldn't really matter. What matters is my life is a tree unlike any other...not straight and tall like a redwood or well-rounded and full Omega Replica like an evergreen. My tree is broken and jagged and yet, i springs a newness when I least expect it.

Megan was also able to verbalize the impact that this visual image would have on others as they view it "When others see my tattoo, I don't want them to feel sorry for me or focus on all of the dead branches I want them to focus on the hope that there will bi more leaves if I'm given the chance."

Once students had an opportunity to explore how their own histories would shape their tattoos, they are then asked to apply the tattoo activity to a character ...
... from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Creating a tattoo to represent the character traits of one of Shakespeare's memorable characters allowed the students to better examine the play as well as understand how precisely a visual image can be used to represent their comprehension. Kevin chose to create a tattoo for the character of Friar Lawrence (see Figure 2). In his explanation of the tattoo, Kevin wrote about the importance of Friar Lawrence:

Some people think that Friar Lawrence wasn't an important character in the play, but I disagree. I think that he was really important because not only does he marry Romeo and Juliet in secret, but he also spends the rest of the play trying to cover up his mistakes as they snowball. The scales for the Montague and Capulet families represent his efforts to balance the destruction that will follow.
Kevin went on to analyze the ethical repercussions of Friar Lawrence's actions, explaining that "the serpent in the tattoo represents the sin that rears its head in his actions and intertwines itself so closely to him that he has difficulty determining the difference between right and wrong."

More than an art activity, creating tattoos to represent literary characters challenges students to think beyond the written Tag Heuer Replica Watches text. By representing their personal journeys as well as fictional characters in texts, Students weave together their exposure to print and nonpoint texts through a layering of mental, emotional, and physical learning activities (Bloom, 1969; Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia, 1964; Simpson, 1972).