Florida School Shooting Survivors Honor Victims With Touching Tattoos
Weeks after the horrific massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, several survivors and supporters are honoring the victims by getting a tattoo that symbolizes the incident.
On Sunday, a local tattoo parlor called No Hard Feelings Tattoo and Piercing held a special event that offered free tattoos to commemorate the death of 14 students and three faculty members at the Florida school shooting.
According to the Sun-Sentinel, hundreds of people lined up to get inked in exchange for donations to aid the families of the victims. Teachers, alumni, supporters, and survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were among those who joined the event.
Students as young as 16 can also get tattoos with a parent’s permission.
Apparently, local artists who participated in the event offered designs such as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s eagle mascot, “MSD Strong,” and “Never Again.”
Aside from tattoos, they also offered piercings for a donation.
Shop owner Chris Blinston told the outlet that he and other tattoo artists started working extra hours shortly after the tragedy to meet the demand for Stoneman Douglas tattoos.
Blinston, who also starred on Spike TV’s Ink Master, reiterated that they are happy to serve those who want to commemorate the victims.
“Stoneman Douglas is our local school here. Those are our kids.”
Stoneman Douglas students, teachers, alumni and supporters are using tattoos to memorialize those who died and show their school pride. @NeverAgainMSD https://t.co/4jiSTwwAgV pic.twitter.com/Tg73X2uxzw
— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) March 12, 2018
One of their customers is Jeremiah Baez. The 16-year-old junior high school student got his very first tattoo — II XIV MMXVIII — the date of the horrific incident in Roman numerals.
Baez recalled how he survived the attack by hiding behind bullet-resistant Kevlar sheets in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps room. He also wondered why Nikolas Cruz didn’t enter the room during the attack, considering he was wearing a JROTC shirt at that time and had been enrolled in the program once.
Steven Porter, 38, also got a tattoo during the event. The Stoneman Douglas alumnus lives near the school and reportedly ran there when he heard the news of the shooting.
Apparently, he chose to have a tattoo of the school mascot with the phrase “always an eagle” underneath.
“The eagle is fierce and strong. It’s a perfect representation of what the school stands for.”
Some people who didn’t even have direct ties to the school also honored the victims by getting tattoos at the event.
Meanwhile, TMZ previously reported that the tragic Florida school shooting could become a documentary soon. According to the webloid, some students were approached by Hollywood producers who expressed interest in working on the project.
Sources added that at least a couple of survivors were offered to participate in a docu-type of film that would depict the tragedy and its aftermath. However, such claims have yet to be confirmed.
