People get tattoos for a variety reasons, whether it’s to honor a loved one, express themselves or make a memory come to life. Even the smallest tattoos have meaning, and for staff members at The Daily Cardinal, commemorating their time with the paper was a no-brainer. Though the idea started off as a failed joke among friends, it quickly manifested itself into reality.
A consistent theme between the two Cardinal staff members I interviewed was how their tattoos are a testament to all the challenges and beauty that come with committing themselves to this organization. They acknowledge the experience of being an editor as one of the hardest responsibilities they have held, yet it’s also unmeasurably meaningful. For these editors, their past few semesters at The Daily Cardinal have been a time of growth, self reflection and dedicated crafting of their skills as journalists.
Andrew Bahl, a junior and last year’s state news editor, explained how, in his eyes, The Daily Cardinal represents “what’s good and right about UW-Madison and journalism as a whole.” Andrew’s representation of the Cardinal is in the form of two birds resting on a tree branch on the top of his left forearm. The birds, one being cardinal red to represent the paper and the other being blue to pay homage to his father, who always wanted to get a blue bird tattoo.
For Andrew, The Daily Cardinal is not just a place of work, but home to the people he is closest to. The tattoo also symbolizes a time in Andrew's life that he believes he will able to look back on several years in the future as a representation of when journalism was fresh and exciting. For him, his piece serves as a marking of the feeling of innocence he once had toward journalism. He explained how, in the near future, journalism will become a day-to-day career and his primary source of income. Yet, the tattoo will be a reminder of when he was a journalist working for free simply because he enjoyed the craft.
The other three editors to get tattoos received matching cardinal red or black feathers on their arms. Sammy Gibbons, a sophomore and the current campus news editor, explained that the logic behind the piece is that “We didn’t want to get the whole bird ...The cardinal is for Wisconsin red. Yet, we didn’t just want to get a splotch of color, so we decided a part of the bird and the color.”
With genuine excitement, Sammy discussed how “the tattoo reaffirmed my desire to become a journalist, and this whole last semester was extremely hard and taxing, but it made me realize that is was something I’m good at, and I wanted to commemorate that experience because it made me decide that [journalism] is what I want to do with my life.”
Next, I asked Sammy what future staff members who may want a tattoo commemorating the Cardinal should consider. She explained how the tattoo connects you and the people you get it with more, especially since it's something that can really consume your life.
I asked both Andrew and Sammy if they would ever get another tattoo of a different news organization in the future. Hesitantly, they both said they would, but would require that the organization have the same, if not more, value and meaning to both their personal and professional lives.
