Young and inspiring against all odds

Recently we’d had a young lady contact us in regards to a tattoo. Like many that come into our studio for tattoos, there was a significant meaning behind it.
Whilst being tattooed, Deanna was kind enough to share her story with us, we found it to be extremely compelling and brave!
We wanted to post Deanna’s story to show the inspiration this young lady brings, she was nice enough to write one up herself and give us permission to post it. 🙂
The Team at Art n Soul would like to thank Deanna for sharing her story, you are truly inspiring!

Here’s what Deanna posted on Facebook:

“I believe that tattoos are a way of expressing your inner feelings and to be reminded of what is important to you in your own unique way. They are the things you think about all day long and are what inspire you the most to keep moving forward. As some of you may already know, last year on the 27th of July I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I first started noticing the first bit of pain when I was laying on my arm for too long and thought to myself “oh well it’s just pins and needles!” Little did I know that those ‘pins and needles’ will never actually go away completely. Having this illness had made me give up things that I loved. I had to stop any form of running, gym and standard me dancing like an idiot because every time I tried to do those things my legs would instantly burn and feel like they would fall off. Being diagnosed in the middle of year 12 and not knowing what MS was or the fact that I even had it was hard for my family, friends and I. I was at my lowest point and thought that MS was the only thing I was and was just a ticking time bomb. The medication wasn’t working, I was losing my hair and I gained my 12th lesion of the disease on my brain (the are spread across both my brain and spinal cord) and I was starting to give up. One day I decided that I was not going to let this control me anymore. That day I decided enough was enough and I had to keep fighting to overcome this. I thought to myself “I’m Deanna Pallotta, how am I out of all people being like this? I’ve never given up on anything or anyone! Why should I start now?” A few months later on the 10th of February 2017, I received a treatment called Lemtrada. Ever since Lemtrada, I have been stronger than I’ve ever felt, although I still have my weaker days. I am still struggling to run and go to the gym as they will take time but I’ve started to get better and better at it and I’m dancing fine again now as you’ve probably seen my Snapchats in town, come past Arcadi. I decided to print the date I was diagnosed on the right side of the center of my body, I would’ve done the left side as that was the side I was affected on but it was a bit too risky. Multiple Sclerosis is in fact a massive part of me but it does not define me. I am strong, I am courageous and I am absolutely confident in myself that I can do anything I set my mind to. I am not ashamed or upset I have it, I no longer cry myself to sleep repeating why me. Although I still have my negative set backs of course. The illness has made me stronger, it is NOT my death sentence and I refuse to let it be. This is why I chose to have the tattoo, to show the world and myself that I’m proud to have MS and that I am still going to keep fighting this war no matter what it takes and how many things I have to do and go through to get there, because I know I can do it. I’m proud of who I am, because of this I am a better and more understanding person. Thank you to everyone who has supported me through all of this, you have no idea how much it all means to me x

P.S thanks for coming with me Ivana, Sam and Anthony, I appreciate it so much, you all tried your best to distract me from the pain!

P.P.S do not mind that white patch, can’t fake tan before or after tattoos for a while and I refuse to be that white HAHAH”