by: MATTHEW MORRISSEY, MFT

The NCSPP Annual Event in March will focus on body modification. Dr. Alessandra Lemma, author of Under the Skin: A Psychoanalytic Study of Body Modification, will be speaking. This event promises to be uniquely fascinating. By way of piquing our readers' interest in the overall topic, we were able to get a few NCSPP members to share their tattoos and the meanings they evoke.

My sleeve represents a combination of my Serbian identity and my all-in approach to life. The double-headed eagle and the crown are inspired by the Serbian crest. The girl is a visual representation of the gratefulness I have for my life, and what it might have been had I stayed behind.


A complex whirl of origins
Transforming functions
Ways to interpret
"Gambits"
Seeking connection
Initiation and ritual
Oedipal
Aesthetics
Meaning making
Unresolved