Although she was raised as Roman Catholic, Jackie Reilly does not consider herself a particularly religious person. But her tattoo, which reads “Closeness to God,” has guided her spiritually over the past few years of her life.

Her tattoo comes from a letter that her grandfather wrote to her when she was on a religious retreat during her sophomore year of high school. Reilly, a junior public relations major, described her grandfather as the center of her family.

“He didn’t have a huge personality. Just his mere presence was very comforting,” Reilly said. “I knew he loved me, but he never really verbalized it until this letter.”

The letter was so important to Reilly that after her grandfather passed away during her freshman year in college, she read it every day. The letter, she said, was not about religion, but emphasized staying positive and keeping faith throughout life.

At first, Reilly’s parents were strongly against her getting the tattoo. That changed at the beginning of her sophomore year, however, when a life-altering experience put Reilly in an incredibly painful place.

When Reilly returned back to school in the fall of 2013, she was raped at a fraternity party.

“It shook up our entire family. But it made us even closer,” Reilly said. “They were really upset, but they were also really supportive.”

After the incident, Riley said she suffered from mild depression. Her parents told her she could get the tattoo to support her. She remembers the day clearly — Sept. 27, 2013.

“It was a reminder that life wasn’t so bad. It would pull me out of those bad moods when nothing else could,” Reilly said.

To design the tattoo, Reilly traced her grandfather’s handwriting from the letter. The tattoo artist curved it slightly because women have curved rib cages.

Now, just over a year after her rape, Reilly still finds comfort in her grandfather’s words: “You have to have faith that a brighter day will follow.”

Published on September 23, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Gigi: gantonel@syr.edu