Two weeks ago, holding a camcorder inside the Halo Tattoo parlor, Erica Franceschini filmed a needle etching an eagle with a flag on a man’s arm for a class project. A year and a half earlier, the sophomore public relations major sat exactly where the man did, getting two small hearts tattooed on her wrist.

A week after she moved in freshman year, she received a coupon from the Marshall Street shop and decided to get inked. Getting the tattoo had been on her mind for two years. After going through a ‘dark place’ when she was younger, she said it felt right to celebrate her strength and support systems.
‘It’s just a reminder that you’re stronger than this, you have people that love you, you don’t have to drop down to that dark place,’ she said. ‘And it’s right there where I can see it at all times.’

Compiled by Colleen Bidwill, asst. feature editor. cbidwill@syr.edu