We haven’t forgotten about the Downtown sinkhole. And Friendship resident Lilly Silknetter never will.
That’s because the breaking news event that united our city in schadenfreude one crisp autumn morning has now inspired a very real and very permanent tattoo.
That’s right, Lilly (a.k.a. @silk_lilly on Instagram), got the viral image indelibly inked on her right arm. We wanted to know why — and figured you might, too. So we asked. Here’s a quick Q&A:
Incline: Ummm … why did you do this?
Lilly: I thought the way Pittsburgh responded to the sinkhole bus — the explosion of memes and cupcakes and Halloween costumes, even a Christmas ornament — was the absolute best way to handle something that could have been a huge headache to complain (about). I like the idea that chaos can bring people together and make us laugh instead of making us angry and stressed.
Incline: How will you explain this tattoo 50 years from now?
Lilly: I’ll call it a part of Pittsburgh history that I lived through. I have seven other tattoos, and I’m sure I’ll have more in 50 years, so I don’t think people are going to question me too much about it.
Incline: Do you have any other Pittsburgh-centric tattoos?
Lilly: This is my only Pittsburgh-themed tattoo.
Incline: How long did this tattoo take?
Lilly: My boyfriend, who’s a graphic designer, drew the design for me. Then it only took about 45 minutes with the tattoo artist (@kaitlynteressa) to figure out the details, position the stencil, and get tattooed. This was a very quick tattoo, so she was only actually tattooing me for 10 minutes.
Incline: Should this tattoo earn you free bus fare or something?
Lilly: Yikes, I can’t see that going down well with the other bus riders. No free transit for me. Maybe if I was repping the Port Authority logo.
Incline: I think we’ve just found your next tattoo. 😀
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