"The pain passes

. . .But the Beauty Remains." -Renoir

So I got my first tattoo at the end of last month. My tattoo represents where I am in life. It expresses how I am learning to accept who I am. It is a reminder of how far I have come. For most of my life, I had this sick habit of looking down on myself. I would magnify my flaws. I could not look in the mirror because all I saw was ugly. I became so fixated on being pretty that I believed I could never be beautiful. Recently, I just became sick of crying over my self-pity. I could see how much I was suffering from my own doing.

I have a serious bone to pick with the how beauty is perceived these days. We are consistently bombarded with images of the "perfect" woman. She is advertised as thin and slender . These advertisements make us believe that we NEED to be thin in order to be beautiful.



As Marilyn Monroe was, women were meant to be voluptuous. I remember when i first saw Marilyn and she was breath taking. Here was a women with meat on her body. She had this immaculate curves and I was completely shocked that her body was accepted in those days. These days we would define her as "overweight". Some studies say that a woman of my height 5'2" should weigh 110 lbs and some say my weight of 123lbs is fine.
I used to be overly self-conscious of my thick thighs because they were bigger than most. Now, I realize that they are beautiful because they are one of my best natural features. My curves define me as beautiful.

As women, we were meant to have Natural curves, none of these implants! It is so disappointing to see women waste millions of dollars to become this artificial "goddess" , or obsessively counting calories from their Starbucks Latté to just look like those cadaverous models. As my friend has said, "Thick women should not compare themselves to skinny women; Skinny women should compare themselves to thick women."

You did not see Renoir, Diego Rivera, and many other artists painting skinny women. They had no form. Artists wanted a challenge so they chose women with different body shapes. Anyone could paint a stick figure.
Here are artists that have helped open my eyes to realize that all body shapes are beautiful.


Herakut. [depicts a girl with thick thighs and small bosoms, "pear-shaped".]





Mode 2.




Fafi. [I can relate to more of her characters because of their tinyness]




Mike Giant. [ He depicts more of this chola style, but i can relate to the curves and the love for punk rock.]

A lot of the contemporary art i see makes me more comfortable in my skin. It gives me confidence that I am beautiful. Confidence is key in making others see how beautiful you truly are.