Freshman showcases power to overcome anxiety with mandala tattoo
Ericka Jones-Craven | Staff Photographer
Six months ago, Analis Arocho decided she wanted to get a mandala tattooed on her back as a meaningful way to combat her anxiety. When she got to SU to begin her freshman year, she went to Halo Tattoo on Marshall Street and got it done.
Between her shoulder blades on the center of her back, freshman Analis Arocho has a large tattoo of a circular, flower-inspired mandala. She designed it herself as a symbol that represents the power she has to overcome anxiety.
Before beginning at Syracuse University, Arocho attended the Union County Magnet High School, a school in New Jersey that is focused around math and engineering and rejects about two-thirds of all applicants.
The school was, Arocho said, incredibly competitive. In her grade of 73 students, everyone took only honors and AP classes, and even getting a B would put you at the bottom of the grading curve. She’d often be up until 3 a.m. doing homework, she said.
“Everyone was definitely trying to be better than everyone else, but not on the surface,” she said. “It was underneath.”
Ericka Jones-Craven | Staff Photographer
Her anxiety began to develop during her freshman year, Arocho said, and got worse as time went on.
By the time her junior and senior years came, her anxiety had reached its peak. The pressure to perform well became overwhelming, and soon her anxiety began preventing her from doing the smallest of tasks. The climax, she said, was a three-day period when her anxiety was so terrible she couldn’t even make it into school.
“It was sheer panic,” she said.
In times like these, one of the very few things that could calm her down was drawing mandalas. The soothing process of sketching the design, which could take between 30 minutes and four hours, allowed Arocho to divert her attention away from what was bothering her and relax.
Six months ago, Arocho decided she wanted to get a mandala tattooed on her back as a meaningful way to combat her anxiety. She waited until she came to Syracuse, and went to the Halo Tattoo parlor on Marshall Street to get it done.
Since coming to Syracuse as a civil engineering major, Arocho said that although she still deals with anxiety, her attacks have slowed down and she feels better.
“Don’t think that things are the end of the world, because they’re definitely not,” Arocho said.
Published on November 10, 2015 at 12:01 am
Contact: emmichae@syr.edu
