Redeemed
Originally written on June 7, 2025. Lightly revised for the Writing Library July 2026.
How I reframed the meaning of an old tattoo and used it to move out of disempowerment and into standing fully in my own power and truth
The word “Redeemed” is etched across my back in lovely script letters. It sits right between my shoulder blades and quite visible for most to see.
When I put it there, it meant something else entirely to me than it does now. I won’t go into great details, other than to say it had a very religious meaning to me at the time.
Through my years of healing and deconditioning, I no longer hold these religious beliefs, but the word is still stamped on my back.
I had to think hard about what I wanted to do with this… cover it up with a bigger tattoo? Have it lasered off?
But then I started thinking about the actual word. Redeemed means “bought for a price.”
How could I reframe that WITHOUT a religious meaning?
And it wasn’t that hard to reframe because the truth of my journey is that I have REDEEMED myself.
I have bought my own life back, my own power back, my own soul back, and I paid a HIGH price to do it.
I sacrificed relationships.
I sacrificed the “comfort” of living in the cage.
I sacrificed my reputation with people who thought rather highly of me.
For years I gave pieces of myself away… to people, belief systems, expectations, and identities that no longer fit.
Buying them back cost me more than I ever imagined. Truly more than I wanted to pay.
I had to walk away from people and places that I never intended to leave.
If “redeemed” means bought for a price… I certainly paid the price.
And as hard as it was, I paid it willingly.
So the tattoo stayed.
Not because it means what it used to.
Because now it reminds me of something entirely different.
I honored my own truth. I honored my own needs.
I came home to myself.
I redeemed myself.
Angela Dawn
Helping people come home to themselves
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