The Tattoos of Sacramento State: Issue No. 3

This week, we’re back with another issue of The Tattoos of Sacramento State. If you’re unfamiliar with our series, The Tattoos of Sacramento State was created to feature students with tattoos and their stories attached to it. Tattoos are a beautiful way to express our interests, a time in our lives that was important to us, our culture or just our love for certain designs. With its recent growth in popularity, the stigma seems to be shifting and we tend to see more tattoos on students nowadays. The students here at Sacramento State sure do have style when it comes to ink, see for yourself!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our first issue as well as Issue No. 2!

If you’re a student and you want to share your ink with us to be featured in an article, email us at Sacramento-State@HerCampus.com or DM us on Instagram @HCSacState.

Wyatt Cotta, 20, Computer Science Major

Cotta got the cover of the album art for Hospice by The Antlers when he was 20 at Black Buffalo Tattoo Collective.

“It’s a little sad but the album is about, obviously like, hospice care, it’s about caring for people when they’re dying. I actually did that for a little bit, so it just kind of reflects that and it just, the whole album has a lot of really personal things that just reflect my life,” Cotta says.

Cheyenne Rada, 24, English Literature Major

Rada got this cover-up of sunflowers when she was 22 at Death or Glory.

“Mostly it’s just a symbol for me because I have high-functioning depression, so it’s like a symbol for me because when I moved to Dickson there’s a sunflower field out there and so it was like a symbol for me to kind of just keep going, and have sunshine throughout the day. Every time I look at it, it really helps put things into perspective cause sunflowers have a really short lifespan once they finally stock up and grow, they grow strong but then they don’t last very long,” Rada says.

Shamaya Sutton, 27, Theater Major

Sutton got the tattoos of a tree and a butterfly with the word life when she was 21 at Heart and Soul Tattoo.

“It kind of represents things in my life that I find really peaceful; so like I have this seashell, and I really like butterflies, and I like nature and cherry blossom trees because there was a cherry blossom tree in the house that I grew up at. I used to have a problem with cutting in high school and so I kinda drew these to kind of commemorate that part of my past, to be like ‘I don’t do this anymore.’ These are the things, you know, that help visualize things that are positive for me, and so I got these over some of my scars to move on I guess,” Sutton says.

Gavriela Acosta, 20, Social Work Major

Acosta got this beautiful tattoo when she was 18 at a shop in South Sac.

“I got the female lion just because, I feel like, she was very strong from the herd and she takes care of everything instead of the male. And I just put the crown on her, that represents me, like a queen. I got the full moon because it’s very feminine like women get a lot from the full moon, so like you’re able to get pregnant during the full moon, have more power during the full moon, it’s just very feminine. And then I got the rose because the rose represents a lot too, like how it grows and all that stuff,” Acosta says.

Eddie Koon, 25, Environmental Studies Major

Koon got this tattoo of an eagle, dragon and his dad’s name when he was 16 by Pinky Yun.

“So basically there’s like different levels of where they’re standing, the fish is the lowest because that’s where it would be in the actual realm of everything worldly. Then you have the eagle above that and the dragon’s above that because it’s kind of heaven, celestial, kind of action with that as well. I also got a family crest going on here as well, they’re all very family related to me,” Koon says.