Friends, city commissioner get tattoos in honor of club shooting victims

ORLANDO, Fla. — A makeshift memorial is growing outside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando where 49 people were gunned down and dozens of others injured in a mass shooting carried out by gunman Omar Mateen.

People began to lay down flowers and candles as soon as Orange Avenue completely reopened Tuesday afternoon, and people were still gathered at the scene by 10 p.m.

Aside from laying down flowers, many stopped by to stand in silence and take in the scene.

But just down the road, several people got together to honor victims in a another way—with a tattoo.

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Local tattoo artist Bobby Arocho united victims’ friends with the same ink.

“Our reality is just showing love and getting love back,” he said. “Just uniting with each other as one whole.”

Sunshine Matthews got a tattoo of an arrow that turns into a pulse line in memory of Shane Tomlinson, who was killed in the attack.

“I got mine in an arrow as a symbol of moving forward and what we’re going to do, and how we’re going to join together from here on out,” Matthews said.

Orlando Commissioner Patty Sheehan, the city’s first openly gay commissioner, also got new ink.

She said moving forward from the ordeal is tough, but possible.

“I’m not going to lie. It’s been grueling,” said Sheehan.

Sheehan said the tattoo is a way of honoring the 49 victims and remembering the day that changed Orlando forever.

“I remember my mother talking about the day President Kennedy was shot, and I think it’s going to be that same kind of thing,” she said.

Cox Media Group