20-year-old Bekah Miles is using a simple tattoo to make an important statement about mental illness. After she was diagnosed with depression, the young woman decided to get the phrase “I'm fine” tattooed upon her thigh. But when you look closer, you'll realize that the mark says something completely different when you look down at it from Bekah's viewpoint–it reads “Save me.”
This powerful illusion is symbolic of Bekah's inner and outer struggles. On the outside, she may look fine, but she could still be painfully struggling on the inside. “Mental illness is serious, but so shamed in our society,” Bekah writes on Facebook. “We care so much for our physical health, but hardly a thing about our mental state. And that is seriously messed up. Mental illness is not a choice and will likely hit everyone at some point in their life. If it's such a huge issue, why aren't we having this conversation about it?”
When others view her thought-provoking tattoo, Bekah hopes that it will encourage them to talk about their own experiences with mental illness. “This forces me to talk about my own struggle, and why the awareness of it is important,” she explains. “You'd be surprised by how many people YOU know that struggle with depression, anxiety, or other mental illness. I may only be one person, but one can save another…and that's all I could really ask for.”
