interviews

What inspired you to become a SuicideGirl?

A friend introduced me to SG when we were in high school. I thought the models on the site were so cool, so pretty, and I wished so badly to be half as confident as they were. Where I grew up, people didn't have tattoos or colored hair. But I saw the SG's and, having never felt like myself in my own skin, knew that my truest self was going to be as colorful as my favorite SG's.

Tell us about your favorite group on SuicideGirls!

My favorite groups are probably the Dungeons & Dragons group, and The Great Outdoors group. I'm a giant nerd and I've been playing D&D at least once a week for almost a decade (and other games too!), but I also like going on real life adventures and go hiking and backpacking a lot so both of those groups are great for sharing with likeminded people and getting to see and be inspired by other member's and model's adventures whether they're in a ttrpg campaign or out on a mountain or in a desert or forest somewhere.

How do you come up with names for your sets?

I really like using song or book titles for my set names and having a relevant lyric or quote as the set description, but for cosplay sets I'll usually pull something from the character source. My most recent SotD is named after a Jim Croce song!

What do you collect?

I collect dead things. Bones and skulls and stuff that I find while hiking. I clean them and keep them on my bookshelf. My collection used to be all found stuff, but I've since had people start gifting me some oddities too which is awesome. Some of the coolest things I've found are sea lion and kangaroo vertebrae, and a complete big horn sheep skeleton.

What was your longest tattoo session and how did you handle it?

My longest tattoo session was 13 hours. Eating food really helps me get through tattoo sessions and I was lucky to have @adastra with me for that session and she was awesome and went out and picked me up food from Nandos when I ran out of snacks which was sooo helpful. But I had traveled for that tattoo, and mostly just sat through it because I knew I had to, or it wouldn't get finished.

What were your favorite video games as a kid?

All of the Zelda and Pokemon games. Link's Awakening and Pokemon Blue were the first games I ever played on my own (I had played some N64 games and stuff with my brother, but they were "ours" - not "mine.") I still try to get and play all the games in both series. I already have a Pokemon tattoo, but I've been wanting a Zelda tattoo for ages. Zelda: Breath of the Wild is probably my favorite game of all time.

What's your preferred console and why?

Nintendo Switch, I love the versatility and Nintendo makes a lot of my favorite games but I'm also about to get a lot of non-proprietary games on that platform so it just has a lot of options and I can travel with it or have it hooked up to my tv. I did get a PS5 recently too and I'm loving that also.

Tell us about your workout routine!

I do a variety of workouts. I hike, I run, I practice yoga, and I do a mixture of bodyweight and weightlifting routines. Keeping workouts versatile and changing keeps me engaged with them and stops me from getting bored, but I also think it helps with practical fitness.

What are your personal fitness goals?

I'm hoping to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from end to end this year - it's a 2,650 mile trail across the US from the California/Mexico border to the Washington/Canada border. It takes 4-6 months to complete. If all goes well I should be starting in the spring and finishing early fall!

What's your favorite book genre?

Sci-Fi and Fantasy are my favorite genres! But I'll read just about anything. I've been on a historical fiction binge recently, and I always love poetry in just about any form.

Tell us about your favorite author(s).

Terry Pratchett, Brandon Sanderson, and Ocean Vuong are probably my favorite authors.

Pratchett just has this unerring ability to parse and write about humanity. But then he takes real people and real problems and puts them in these inane, magical, raw settings and creates stories that are so reflective of our own world and yet different and hilarious and heartfelt and inclusive and inspiring and silly. You walk away from Pratchett books feeling like you learned something about the world and yourself, but also feeling good. A rare feat considering he doesn't shy away from difficult topics.

Sanderson - I'm just convinced he's sold his soul or something. I don't know any other writer fantasy who is as prolific and consistent in output, and all the while his level of worldbuilding is mind-blowing in intricacy, breadth, and consistency, his characters deep and varied, and his stories are just consuming - the kind of books you pick up and can't set down. The magnitude of his work just feels impossible to create and I am very in awe of him as a writer.

Ocean Vuong has a way with words that makes the language of everyone else seem pale and empty in comparison. He primarily writes poetry, but even his recent prose novel is just full of beautiful lyricism and words and phrases so beautiful and so simple yet profound - it is writing that is so tangibly *art* - it stirs something in my soul and has a grip on me long after I finish reading.

Tell us about something your wrote that you are super proud of, and tell us where we can find your work!

A short story I wrote last year, called The Hills Have Secrets, was published in Cease Cows Magazine and they nominated it for a Pushcart Prize. It's my first Pushcart nom and I'm super humbled by it and grateful to them for believing in my work.

Thank you so much for the love on my recent SoTD. This set is really special to me, and it means so much to see it receive so much support, thank you . <3 - @nebula