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Julia Michaels has a tattoo on the side of her neck that says “I am ____ .” as a tribute to her journey of self-discovery. Since transitioning for being a behind-the-scenes songwriter to being a performer; she is happier, has fewer panic attacks, and feels that she has become a more authentic version of herself. She told Vevo:
I feel the most like myself that I ever have, now…I feel like every day I’m getting more and more comfortable in my skin and comfortable as an artist.
Julia Michaels had the words “speak up” inked on her throat on May 28, 2017 as a reminder to say what she thinks and be confident.
“I think the [tattoo] that probably best represents me is the ‘Speak Up,'” she told Vevo. “And I think now more than ever I have the opportunity to have an opinion, and to have a voice, and that I should speak up.”
She told MusicChoice:
“I have a tendency to make myself feel really small in vulnerable times. And I just have to remind myself that I’m not. And to say what’s on my mind and know that people are not going to judge me for it. And I’ll feel stronger because of it.”
Julia Michaels has a surrealist cartoon with the message “Free Hugs” on her right upper arm. It shows a sweater with hands but no head, grabbing onto branches that exist where the head should be. The original design, sans text, was drawn by artist Geffen Refaeli for her dailydoodlegram Instagram page where she creates unique illustrations inspired by the images in her feed. In this case she combined a sweater from a fashion designer’s account with a photo of a branch from a plant magazine. What it all means is subject to interpretation.
The “Free Hugs” text which Julia added to the piece gives a hint at how she personally views it. She told Source:
“All my tattoos deal with connections, intimacy, perception: things I deal with and want to learn more about.”
Julia Michaels got two holding hands tattooed on her right upper arm by London Reese on May 28, 2017 at The Black Lantern Tattoo Studio. They are a symbol of interpersonal relationships.
Julia Michaels has a bee tattoo on her middle knuckle on her right hand.
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Julia Michaels has an interesting tattoo design on her right wrist consisting of three V-shapes and three circles. You can see two triangles in the negative space even though they are not fully formed. This optical illusion is why the design resonated with Julia. It represents the power of the human mind to see beyond what exists on the surface.
People like to make fun of me for it because they’re like ‘oh Pac Man!’ But this is actually a symbol for perception. It has two triangles and three circles, but nothing is actually fully formed. Even though the brain perceives it as whole, and it’s not, which I think is really interesting how you can perceive something as whole even when it’s not.
This design, called the Kanizsa triangle, is a famous optical illusion created by the Italian psychologist Gaetano Kanizsa in 1955.
Julia Michaels has a light bulb tattoo on her right forearm as a symbol of inspirational thoughts. She and tattoo artist London Reese struggled with how to visually represent the sub-conscious mind. Their brainstorming resulted in this unique design of a light bulb containing stars and planets. She told 92.3 AMP Radio:
The light bulb of course is kind of like the bubble for ideas. And I was like ‘How do we embody the sub-conscious?’ Because a lot of the times when I write, a lot of times I don’t know where it comes from. It’s just like a weird, out of body experience. I will be talking to somebody and then all of a sudden — there’s a song. And I can’t really explain it. So I was talking to London, my tattoo artist, and we were like ‘How can we embody that feeling?’ And we came up with the universe in a light bulb.
Julia Michaels has the message “i love you” inked on her right palm as a reminder to never forget to love herself. The tattoo is Julia’s own handwriting and was done on December 20, 2016. It is on her non-dominant hand so it looks as if she wrote it herself in pen.
“I have a lot of little reminders on my body because I don’t tell myself that I love myself. And sometimes I forget, too. So I have this a just a ‘hey, I love you, everything is ok today,’ basically.” she told MusicChoice.
The location made the tattoo extremely painful, and she finds it funny that she basically tortured herself in the process of getting a symbol of self-love.
“It says ‘I love you’ but it was very ironic because it was very painful, I wouldn’t wish this kind of pain on anybody. Don’t do it!” she told Z100.
Julia Michaels has a tattoo of a geometric anatomical heart with an eye crying in the middle of it on her right arm. The crying eye represents a bit of her vulnerability and the whole design was inked on November 3, 2016 by talented artist London Reese.
As cliche as it sounds, it’s because I wear my heart on my sleeve. And we put the eye in there because it’s my way of showing myself a little bit. And showing that I’m slowly coming out of hiding. Because I do, I hide, and I’ve gotten so content with hiding over the years.
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Julia Michaels has a faceless woman tattooed on her right upper arm. The portrait has a geometric pattern on her face, while the rest of it is very vibrant and colorful. The ink piece was done by artist Jim Sylvia across multiple sessions in February and March 2016.
Back then Julia was still writing songs for other artists and the concealed face symbolizes herself being unseen. She told Vevo:
I have this faceless woman here. It kind of, at the time, was describing my anonymity in the music industry…I’ve always kind of felt like this is who I am on the inside. Everything’s just kind of changed so much this year that I feel like this is me, this is me showing myself, this is me at my most vulnerable.
She made the transition to being a performer after she wrote her breakout hit “Issues,” a song that was so personal she couldn’t imagine anyone else singing it.
“I’m a very nervous person, and I’ve never really been much of a confident person. I think it took a song like ‘Issues’ for me to realize that [being a singer] was something that I wanted, and something that I’ve suppressed because I’m so fearful of it,” she told Jimmy Fallon.
She had been hiding her face from the world in large part because of her severe anxiety. In an essay for Glamour, she opened up about her journey towards overcoming the anxiety which had plagued her since she was 18 and caused her to have panic attacks. Putting her face out into the public eye was not easy for her, but she is happier now that she’s done it. She wrote:
I was scared of not hiding anymore. I was scared of reaching a level of potential I had never reached.
When I see people sing “Issues” with me, it’s the most incredible feeling in the world…This is what I’ve always wanted. To be understood, to be heard. To be seen.
