Body Art

Your body is your canvas, and you make it your own! Body art and alterations like tattoos, piercings, and even haircuts and colors help us express ourselves, and take control over the way we present our body to the world. And often, they're a way for us to mark new chapters in our lives—a new beginning often brings with it the urge to change something about your appearance, giving you a brand new, fresh start.

We want to know about a time in your life –– or something you plan to do in the future –– where a physical change helped commemorate a new chapter for you, or otherwise impacted you in a positive way. Did you and your freshman college roommate get nose piercings the first weekend away to mark your newfound freedom? Or maybe you got a tattoo to mark a healing process, or got a pixie cut after your first rough breakup? Enter the Body Art Challenge and share a time when a transformation on the outside reflected some growth within. If you're able to share photos or the inspiration that got you headed in that new direction, please share!

For your story to be eligible, it must be between 600 and 5,000 words and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until October 26, 2020, at 11:59 PM EST will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.

The Body Art Challenge is exclusive to Vocal+ members. To learn more or upgrade to Vocal+, visit https://vocal.media/vocal-plus.

To be eligible to win the grand prize, second place, or third place prizes, you must be over the age of 13 and residing in a country where Stripe is available at the time of entry. A complete list of countries where Stripe is available can be found here—winners will need to have a Stripe account created and connected in order to receive the prizes. For this reason, entrants located outside of any of these 35 countries will not be eligible to win.