Poor Unfortunate Souls…
Tattoo by Alice White of Coastline Tattoos in Provincetown, MA, June 2022
Ursula was supposed to represent everything wrong with me. Fat, queer, and with those tentacles gender could be confusing. She liked the dark creepy things and didn’t fit in.
As a kid she spoke to me so deeply and she was the only Disney character I could see myself in.
In Greek mythology there is a demi-god (like Ursula) who was the sea witch child of Poseidon and Amphirtie. The shell Ursula used to steal voices was the very shell this demi-god inherited as the one thing she from her mother.
Ursula stole voices after being banished and cast aside, silenced and ridiculed for being different. It feels like our current political climate is no different, especially as a fat, queer, disabled person. I often inhabit the body, spaces, experiences that are often unseen, cast aside or deemed unworthy. So now I walk around with a nautilus shell firmly on my throat, a reminder of the voice I have, that no one can steal it from me no matter how hard they try to silence me and the queer, fat weirdos like me. I guess if you’re not on my team you’re just a….poor unfortunate soul.
