What propelled you to get your first tattoo? 

Return, came out of tina’s attempt to unpack why it felt necessary for her to receive a tattoo and how tattoo seems to soothe a sense of alientation she’s felt from her body.

🤔 Leading up to making this zine, tina was reflecting on western cultural hegemony’s myth of a singular, normal and productive body. While not explicitly stated in the zine itself, the idea of returning to self, is about shrugging off imposed sexist, racist, ableist readings of the body, breaking free from the confines of an idealized, productive body, and moving  homewards to an understanding of the body that is whole and embeded with the mind, that’s in flux, that needs rests, and a a body that belongs with and to the natural world.

💫 To read the zine as inteded, readers must turn the zine counterclockwise when reaching the centre fold, then read from bottom up 🌱🌻

🙇🏻 This zine is largely inspired by the somatic tattoo practice of 🌀 interdisciplinary artist + somatic tattooer sab meynert. Follow them on instagram ✨@studiosabmeynert

🎨 Thanks also goes out to Chen Cao @chencaoart, who provided the space for tina to explore these thoughts and ideas in two independent study units at OCAD.

🧵 For more thoughts on tattoos and the body, read a thread on tattoos and the nervous system by @vinnietatts.

Originally made in 2025 drawn with pencil on paper, zines were later reproduced via inkjet black + white copies on alternating yellow and pink paper, measuring approximately 5.5″ x 4″.

🥳 Return debuted at Zine Dump in November 2025 and was first read to a live audience August 2025 for Comics Live at Squirrely’s on Queen Street West.

To hear it read to you, play the video on this page 📺