About Cindy Baker

Cindy Baker is an artist from Leduc, Alberta, Canada. She has Multiple Sclerosis and chronic migraines. In her words:

This is a tattoo inspired by one of my performative installation artworks titled Crash Pad. It’s a project about allowing my body to do what it needs on any given day.

The tattoo features a central mattress, shaped like a pill, surrounded by chains with pills dangling from them. Pills provide welcome relief from my pains and ailments. I turn to them as friends in times of need – to share good times, and to help take away the bad times.

Often, once we’ve come to know our friends, rely on them, become comfortable with their constant presence, it’s hard to imagine life without them. Friends become our lovers, family, daily companions. This tattoo represents the complicated relationship I have with pills and celebrates rest as an essential part of my life and care routine.

Though I’ve faced tons of medical and otherwise institutional fatphobia, and surely because my disability is largely/usually invisible, I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed a time when I’ve been discriminated against for my disability. I know this makes me really fortunate (and probably, in some cases, oblivious or naive).

I’ve similarly not noticed discrimination in these settings for my tattoos. My education is in the visual arts, and I tend to think those people are largely more compassionate and social justice-minded than the average in academia.

I did have an advisor who was keen to argue with me about whose medical issues were “worse,” mine or hers. She boldly claimed that cancer is more stigmatized than any other medical issue. I’m not interested in those quantifications or one-upmanship games. Maybe this amounts to discrimination; I’m not sure. I can say that this advisor was extremely fatphobic.

Do you feel empowered by your tattoos? Yes, my tattoos are my story written on skin; they are for me more than they are for others. Getting a tattoo is one way to control a part of myself that is sometimes beyond my control and to tell my story the way I want it told.

You can follow Cindy Baker on Instagram @cindebee opens a new website and on Facebook @lovecindybaker opens a new website.