How Emily Engstler’s tattoos tell the story of family, faith, and finding herself.
The road to the Mystics hasn’t been a straight line for Emily Engstler. Between transfers, draft-day highs, and roster uncertainty, she’s learned that believing in yourself gets easier when you remember who believed in you first.
Start small and meaningful. Sit with the idea for a few months and if you still want it after that, go for it. Make sure it’s something that means something to you, especially if you don’t plan on getting many. Now, I’m someone who would walk into a shop and get a random tattoo if it looks cool, but not everyone’s like that. So, start with something meaningful, then have fun with it.
Probably the open book tattoo. I used to be super into poetry and took classes in high school and college. It’s kind of a surrealist tattoo. The design is an open book that turns into an outer-space scene with a stencil of a person. It’s about how what you see isn’t always what’s really there. My artist, John, did it back home. He’s done half my tattoos. I’ll bring him an idea and just let him freestyle.
Engstler got her first tattoo when she turned 18 and continues to add art with each new chapter. Some designs carry stories of family, faith, and home; others are simply about joy. We sat down with her to talk about her favorite tattoos, the power of living with love, and her best advice for anyone ready to get inked.
That’s tough because I really like all my tats. My whole leg sleeve has meaning to me. It’s based on the court where I grew up playing back home in the Bronx. I’ve also got Saint Sebastian on there. He’s the saint of sports, and that was my saint for confirmation. It just tied everything together.
I think that's the hardest part of being human, you find all this love in you and you're able to pour it into others. But when something goes wrong or you lose someone in grief, it's really hard to find that love in yourself. So, I would say that I am still working on that. In the hard moments, I think about my amazing family and friends. Those are the people who instill that love that you find in yourself. Remembering that there’s a reason these people love me.
Well, when I started this hand, I just had “LOVE” on it because if you know anything about me, you know I'm a little bit of a romantic. I love all my love stories, and I just think life is better spent loving it.
I have a bunch with my sister. My brother, sister, and I all have matching tattoos of a tree with different colored leaves, one for each of the seasons of our birthdays. My brother’s friend actually drew it up, so it’s an original piece that no one else will ever have. And then, I have a purple lotus on my wrist for my mom. It’s her favorite flower and her favorite color.
My first tattoo was the first basketball trophy that I won when I was a kid, with a note from my mom in the middle of it. It’s meaningful because the trophy was one of my first CYO [Catholic Youth Organization] trophies. In that league, it was mostly boys, and I feel like you always have to prove yourself when you're playing with guys, so getting that first trophy just meant something to me. And then, to get my mom on board, I implemented something that she gave me some years later when I graduated high school and found out I was going to Syracuse. It just felt like a full circle moment.
How Emily Engstler’s tattoos tell the story of family, faith, and finding herself.
Probably the open book tattoo. I used to be super into poetry and took classes in high school and college. It’s kind of a surrealist tattoo. The design is an open book that turns into an outer-space scene with a stencil of a person. It’s about how what you see isn’t always what’s really there. My artist, John, did it back home. He’s done half my tattoos. I’ll bring him an idea and just let him freestyle.
Start small and meaningful. Sit with the idea for a few months and if you still want it after that, go for it. Make sure it’s something that means something to you, especially if you don’t plan on getting many. Now, I’m someone who would walk into a shop and get a random tattoo if it looks cool, but not everyone’s like that. So, start with something meaningful, then have fun with it.
Well, when I started this hand, I just had “LOVE” on it because if you know anything about me, you know I'm a little bit of a romantic. I love all my love stories, and I just think life is better spent loving it.
I have a bunch with my sister. My brother, sister, and I all have matching tattoos of a tree with different colored leaves, one for each of the seasons of our birthdays. My brother’s friend actually drew it up, so it’s an original piece that no one else will ever have. And then, I have a purple lotus on my wrist for my mom. It’s her favorite flower and her favorite color.
I think that's the hardest part of being human, you find all this love in you and you're able to pour it into others. But when something goes wrong or you lose someone in grief, it's really hard to find that love in yourself. So, I would say that I am still working on that. In the hard moments, I think about my amazing family and friends. Those are the people who instill that love that you find in yourself. Remembering that there’s a reason these people love me.
My first tattoo was the first basketball trophy that I won when I was a kid, with a note from my mom in the middle of it. It’s meaningful because the trophy was one of my first CYO [Catholic Youth Organization] trophies. In that league, it was mostly boys, and I feel like you always have to prove yourself when you're playing with guys, so getting that first trophy just meant something to me. And then, to get my mom on board, I implemented something that she gave me some years later when I graduated high school and found out I was going to Syracuse. It just felt like a full circle moment.
Engstler got her first tattoo when she turned 18 and continues to add art with each new chapter. Some designs carry stories of family, faith, and home; others are simply about joy. We sat down with her to talk about her favorite tattoos, the power of living with love, and her best advice for anyone ready to get inked.
That’s tough because I really like all my tats. My whole leg sleeve has meaning to me. It’s based on the court where I grew up playing back home in the Bronx. I’ve also got Saint Sebastian on there. He’s the saint of sports, and that was my saint for confirmation. It just tied everything together.