“Loving again those parts that have suffered so much”: for trans people, tattooing is anchored as a tool of reappropriation

"Error 404: Gender not found." This is the first tattoo for Nelly, a 34-year-old trans woman from Brittany, who wanted to immortalize "the panic of cis people when they don't understand [her] gender." And she's not alone: ​​Lucas, a trans tattoo artist from Lyon for four years, has already inked this geek-inspired pun "a good fifteen times." Adopting " this community reference " marks a desire to feel a sense of belonging, "vital" for Nelly, at a time when trans rights are under attack, from the United Kingdom to the United States to France.

And meeting a sibling (a figurative, gender-neutral term for brothers and sisters) wearing the same motif reinforces this feeling. Among the most common: the gender-inclusive symbol