Elijah Miley
Achievements (1)
Stories (2/0)
A Transmasculine Tattoo Tale. Second Place in Tattoo Tale Challenge .
I can’t quite recall when I crossed the threshold from “guy with tattoos” to “tattooed guy”. There is a distinction, a sort of vague initiation into someone who is more defined by their ink because they simply have more of it than most people do. My body is decorated with ancient deities, esoteric symbols, and a menagerie of animals; in mostly black ink. The crowning jewel of my tattoo collection would go to the biggest and most colourful though. Covering my torso from chest to hip is a phoenix in vivid reds and yellows. It’s certainly eye catching, and my collection of crop tops increased 10 fold after getting it. My mother used to tell me, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it”, but I don’t think this was what she intended.
By Elijah Miley4 years ago in Humans
PTSD, inconvenient anger, and the power of forgiveness
When something traumatic happens to you, oftentimes during the recovery process you will come against something known as "toxic positivity culture". In short, this can be described as swallowing or denying an emotion, thought process, or way of coping in order to say everything is okay and nothing "bad" has tainted your head space. When I was younger, I found myself submerged in the counterculture of Vancouver's Commercial Drive. White women with dreadlocks and crystal collections that could pay off my student loans would tell me about the inner workings of the universe, how it was all connected, and the magic of sacred geometry. “What exactly is sacred geometry?” I would ask. “Like, what applications does it have?” The only reply I would get was, “It’s in everything, look around you!” I would nod uneasily, feeling like the answer was perhaps lacking some detail. They would educate me on how to set my vibration so that only good things would happen to me and I was swept up in the ideas that focusing on or even acknowledging my anger, sadness, frustration, disappointment or anything that wasn’t a constant manic joy would result in me allowing these negative energies to taint me; which would often imply I was somehow not a good person. “Low vibrational”, I would hear in very self assured tones.
By Elijah Miley4 years ago in Psyche