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MIKAELA JENSON ROSEMAN (MJR): You want me to tell you the story of my tattoos?  Okay. So my left arm is pretty much a
dedication to my grandfather. I have this one up here  which is a line drawing of him. He served in World War II so
that’s why I have the Purple Heart in there ‘cause he received one of those
awards. He passed away in 2001 and then I got this one to memorialize him which
is a biblical passage.

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CLOSE UP: DO YOU KNOW IT BY HEART?

I
know the passage but to be honest with you I don’t know any more the verse.

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CU: “SEE UPON THE PALMS OF MY HAND, I HAVE CARVED YOUR NAME.” WHAT DO YOU
RECALL ABOUT THAT PASSAGE?

I
actually first heard about it in a class I was taking at Temple. I was a
religion minor. And when I heard it I thought that it  was a very good, a really good quote for a memorial tattoo.
And I sort have always moderately considered adding more to my arm, like more
pictures of my grandfather. He did a lot of stained glass work when he was still
alive and I have a lot of that left. So I wanted to have some of those pictures
maybe added.   A lot of my
tattoos I’d say aside from these ones are not – not that they have no point but
they’re not as personally, I think, angled. And so I’ve sort of decided that
since this is my arm obviously closer to my heart that I’ll have that dedicated
for him.

WHAT
WAS YOUR RLEATIONSHIP WITH HIM THAT YOU’D…

He
was wonderful. He was born in 1907.
His name was Albert  Furman Jensen
and he passed away in 2001.  He had
a very lucky, nice passing I think. And I just remember being really close with
him growing up.  So I remember
being a kid, he had white hair, his nickname was “Whitey.” Even when he was a kid he had white
hair. I just remember combing his hair at their house in Upper Darby when I was
a little girl. He got Alzheimer’s later in life and he would have lucid moments
as well. And so he always knew who I was, even when he was …Alzheimer’s. I
remember one day I tried to microwave a 
thing of peanut butter And it had the wrapper on it still. It burst into
flames in the microwave.  And my 89
year old grandfather at the time sprinted through the house to get to the
kitchen to put it out.  So you know
I have all these varied distinct memories of him, all really positive ones and
even though it’s been a while, I was twelve. Yeah, I was eleven or twelve when
he passed away. Now I’m twenty-five but I still think about him all the time.   

Here’s the only picture that I have in
my wallet.  And this is the one
that I always considered getting a portrait of him

So
I have these puzzle pieces that I have on my arm that are meant  to be for me and my best friend who
I’ve known since I was four. I have “Love” and “Peace” on my wrist because
those are ideals I’d like to live by contrary to how it usually goes. I have a
fish on my neck because I was very interested in marine biology. And then on my
back which you really won’t be able to see. I have wings on my back and a
William Blake quote in between them that says “Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained,” which is a quote from his piece, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

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CU; DO YOU EVER WORRY THAT YOU’LL FALL OUT OF LOVE WITH SOMETHING YOU’VE
TATTOOED ON?

No.
Never. I haven’t so far. You know some of my tattoos, on the back of my neck up
here I have this little heart which has no sentimental meaning whatsoever- it
was something I got because I was in New York City and I wanted a tattoo in New
York City and I picked it off of the wall and I really don’t regret any of them
at all. I still like them.  You
know for me it’s either that I remember something that happened when I got it
or for the ones that  like actually
do mean something more personal to me, you know like in ten years I’m not going
to decide all of a sudden that I don’t like my grandfather anymore, you know?