" So, tattooing... you’ve got a picture in your mind, then you put it on your body. You make a hazy imagining into a tangible part of you. Or, to flip it around, you want a reminder of something, so you put it on your body, where it’s a real, touchable thing. You see the thing on your body, you remember it in your mind, then you touch it on your body, you remember why you got it, what you were feeling then, and so on, and so on. It’s a reinforcing circle. You’re reminded that all these separate pieces are part of the whole that comprises you. "

― Becky Chambers , A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2)