Brooklyn-based photographer Marisa Chafetz (previously featured here) began her “Butterfly Tattoo Portraits” series the week before Covid lockdowns started. Feeling lonely and disconnected from a greater sense of community, she discovered that, among artist friends participating in a group show, about half of them had butterfly tattoos (herself included).

“I was surprised to find deep meaning in that serendipity, and I imagined a thread between us- one that I strung up myself when I got my tattoo,” she explains. “I started to imagine this thread between myself and all the other people in the city who have butterfly tattoos. It felt like a subtle intertwining of our stories. The portraits represent both the sitters as they are, and my longing for connection and collective. It’s also a celebration of chosen identity: tattoos and portraiture both affirm art’s ability to deepen our vision of who we choose to be.”

See more of Chafetz’s “Butterfly Tattoo Portraits” below!