Three weeks ago, 21-year-old Rebecca Florczyk sat alone in a parlor chair at Lola Tattoos in Bogata, NJ. With her iPod ear buds in place, this outgoing and sociable varsity softball player was all set to get a black graffiti-style tattoo (approximately two inches high by five inches long) along her right outer thigh of her favorite nickname: “Stoner.”
No, this wasn’t a drunken decision made spontaneously after too many shots or a consequence of losing a bet, but was something Florczyk has always known she wanted to do.
Looking at this petite, bubbly young woman, most would not expect her to be a tattoo aficionado, but the TCNJ senior is no stranger to getting “inked.” She has tattoos on her hip and rib.
“I’m really into tattoos,” says Florczyk, “I like getting things that are unique to me in kind of unique places.”
The first tattoo she had done was the West African symbol for creativity on her hip. The body art version of this symbol was designed by her younger brother and has a sentimental meaning to Florczyk, who spent the summers of 2007 and 2008 traveling throughout West Africa with her mother, who was doing special work there.
Her second tattoo, which she had done last October on her ribs, is also a West African symbol, this one depicting the importance of learning from the past.
“When I traveled with my mother I saw them everywhere,” says Florczyk of the West African symbols. “I found out they’re like an alphabet of shapes.”
After doing some research, she learned there were around 50 of these symbols, all with distinct meanings.
“The two I have mean something to me,” she says.
Inside the West African symbol on her ribs, she also has the Hebrew word for “brother” tattooed in reciprocation to her brother, who already had the Hebrew word for “sister” tattooed on his back.
Just as these first tattoos had significant meaning to Florczyk, so does her most recent one of the nickname “Stoner,” which does not have its roots in illegal drugs or behavior that most people associate with the label “stoner,” such as a tendency to sleep and munch all day.
Florczyk’s nickname, on the other hand, was given to her by her father before she was even old enough to talk, and for quite the opposite reason.
At the very young age of 3-months-old, Florczyk contracted Infant Botulism, a very rare airborne disease that according to Livestrong.com, attacks the immune system and often results in respiratory complications or even failure.
Even with 12 days under intensive care in the hospital, Florczyk’s body was not responding to treatments and her parents were preparing for the worst.
“The doctors told my parents, ‘your daughter is going to die,’” says Florczyk.
Just as doctors were giving up hope, by some miraculous measures, Florczyk’s body was able to fight off the disease in a way that wasn’t possible before with treatment.
“So basically after that whole experience,” she says, “my dad and his best friend made up the nickname Stoner, I guess because I was so young and so sick and I was able to fight through it.”
And the nickname surely stuck. “All the guys in my life—my dad, my uncles, my brother—they all call me Stoner,” she says. “None of them call me Rebecca.”
“Everyone assumes it means I’m a pot head,” Florczyk acknowledges, “but that’s not it at all.” She didn’t allow this stereotype associated with the word stop her from getting the nickname that exemplifies her life struggle at such an early age and means so much to her — imprinted forever on her body.
While Florczyk says her mother has always liked the nickname, she is less fond of her daughter’s obsession with tattoos.
“My mom is more against me getting the tattoos. She’s always like, ‘Ugh, another one?’” Florczyk explains.
But Florczyk is very particular, and smartly so, in her choice of placement for her beloved tattoos. She makes sure that it’s something she can easily hide and won’t affect any professional field she would like to enter.
Still, if it were up to her, Florczyk says she would have an entire sleeve of tattoos up her arm. “I know that’s so unattractive to some people,” she admits, “but I really love tattoos and getting something that means something to you, not to mention the thrill of going.”