The Powerful Message Behind Lady Gaga’s New Tattoo
Lady Gaga shows off her meaningful new ink with tattoo artist David Allen. (Photo: Instagram/DavidAllen)
Lady Gaga is no stranger to standing up and speaking out about what she believes in. She is also no stranger to tattoos, and is covered with ink signifying different parts of her life.
The singer and actor’s Snapchat story recently mentioned that she and all 50 of the sexual assault survivors that she performed with onstage at the Oscars made a pact during rehearsals. The promise was kept in the form of ink, as all 51 got matching tattoos (some for the first time!).
The artist who inked Gaga shared a photo of the two of them on his Instagram, writing, “Honored to tattoo a symbol of ‘unity’ on @ladygaga today.”
Yahoo Beauty talked to one of the survivors, Julie Smolyansky, CEO of Lifeway Foods, who was onstage with Gaga performing the Oscar-nominated song “Til It Happens to You.” “[The tattoo] was drawn by survivor Jackie Lin, who was onstage with us. Over half of us, including Gaga, were compelled to celebrate our performance and stand in unity and solidarity with survivors around the world,” Smolyansky explained.
“I feel liberated and free.” (Photo: Julie Smolyansky)
“The symbol is a blend of unity and a rose, which is Gaga’s favorite flower. When I look at it, I feel nothing but pride, triumph, power. I feel my strength and victory. And I feel liberated and free. I hope other survivors around the world can think of this symbol whether in thought or any other way that seems right for them as a concrete place to go to when they need to know they can not only survive but thrive.”
Photo: Instagram/LadyGaga
Gaga captioned her Instagram photo with her 50 fellow survivors: “Thank you for standing next to me onstage. Thank you for all the things you said, for listening to my story and sharing yours. I will never forget it. 50 survivors, so brave, relentless determination.”
After the court decision in fellow singer Kesha’s sexual assault case, Gaga shared a poignant image of a music studio with the words “This is not a bedroom. This is my office.”
Photo: Instagram/LadyGaga
Friday morning on the Elvis Duran Show, Gaga said, “People think they are alone, but I’m still feeling it and I have all the resources in the world.”
Smolyansky described the hours Gaga spent talking with the performers, saying, “This was a hard performance for all of us, but we were there for each other. And for me personally, I just kept thinking that whatever risk, perceived or real, I was taking to join her and the others on that stage would be worth it to show survivors around the world that they could thrive, to be part of a global movement at scale, and to raise awareness.”
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