Senior public relations and marketing major Alex Ruffing started dreaming up the idea for her tattoo when she was 17 years old. A lifelong fan of literature, Ruffing was drawn to Shakespeare, and chose to set up the top portion of her tattoo with Roman numerals that correspond to the organization of his plays.

“Will Shakespeare said that ‘The world is a stage, and men and women are merely players,’” Ruffing said, musing over one of her favorite quotes. “This was inspiration for my idea. We are essentially directors of our own life and our path that we lead to the future.”

Close to Thanksgiving in 2010, Ruffing went to local Long Island spot Tattoo Lou’s and got the numbers II, VI and VII permanently tattooed across her left ribcage. These numbers correlate to a metaphysical scene, act and line in her lifetime, the same way it would mark a location in a Shakespearean play. Though Ruffing would say her life has been a mix of comedy and tragedy, her tattoo points to a time in her life that was overpowered by love, and it is the idea of love that is the prevailing message of her ink.

Ruffing grew up under difficult circumstances. Her mother was an immigrant from Greece who built her life in America as a hairdresser. Ruffing was born premature and credits her mother’s love for her survival.

“She spent three months in the hospital after I was born, nurturing me, reading to me, until it was safe for me to go home,” Ruffing said. “She truly instilled a sense of love within me, and I carry this love where I go.”

Ruffing emphasizes her connection with love: as a word, as a feeling, as something that can hurt and something that can heal.

When she was young, her father left the family, leaving her to be raised by her mother and stepfather. Through that blossoming relationship, Ruffing gained four siblings. Growing up as the elder to her new siblings, she said she learned more about love than she expected. To make the mark of love across her ribcage, Ruffing pays homage to a proponent of 1960s love: Jimi Hendrix.

The quote, “We’re all bold as love,” came to Ruffing when she was a freshman and encouraged visitors to her dorm room to put their favorite quotes on her wall with a Post-it note. She accumulated almost 100 quotes by the end of her freshman year. The Hendrix quote was one that stuck with her.

“Hendrix came from a time where people tried to change oppression and overcome adversity through love and the boldness of music,” Ruffing said. “This is something I respect and relate to.”

Though her tattoo pays homage to her mother, stepfather and siblings, Ruffing admits to not having shown or told any of them. Not completely sure how her parents would react, she at least has the good sense not to tell her younger siblings who would, no doubt, as Ruffing puts it, “spill the beans.”

Published on January 29, 2013 at 12:22 am

Contact Ian: imfeiner@syr.edu