Jane is an incredible woman that I have had the pleasure of photographing as part of my tattoo project. Jane would describe herself very much as Goth but also as an ultra runner, a combination that you wouldn’t at first think of !
Jane is also a fighter and has just finished Chemotherapy and is about to start radiotherapy to beat her cancer. None of us ever know the cards that life will deal us and it is up to us to play the hand to the best of our ability. While Jane has been going through this aggressive treatment she has continued running, not as fast or as far but she is still running. Not only is she still running but she is still leading a running group and inspiring others to take control of their own fitness.
This is Jane’s Story of her tattoo:
“My first marathon was in 2013 in the April and that was Brighton, I did Beachy Head in the October which is an absolute killer and then I did Portsmouth in the December. So I’d done three and I thought three marathons, thats a lot, I need a running tattoo. I looked at all the ones everyone else had and they all had like 26.2, or a little man running. Just well, everyone had got that so what do I think of when I think of running ? I thought of the seafront because we run a lot there to train because it is literally there and I thought on the Brighton Marathon when you reach a certain point, which is the Peace Statue, you know you you’re nearly there, it is all downhill from there basically, and then you would always say to people “I’ll meet you at the Peace Statue and we can go for a run” and on Christmas Day we would always meet at the Peace Statue and go for a run and so I wanted the Peace Statue.
That sums it up for me. Everything about running is in there because I just have to look at it and everything comes back to me about running on the seafront, running first thing in the morning, running when the sun is going down, running in the dark when you can only just see her. Running in the rain, in the fog, everything and I just…… it just means running to me.
I was going to have another one in January on this leg but you’re not allowed to get tattoos while you are undergoing chemo which is a bit of a shame. I am thinking about having a tattoo on my head just in my hair line so when my hair grows back only I will know that it is there and I want the year but I don’t know what else yet, something about being a warrior, something about beating cancer….. but I don’t know what yet…. ”
The Technical Bit
This photo was taken with the Sony A7R2 camera and the Zeiss Batis 135mm lens. It was lit using a single Elinchrom Quadra head with a small soft box. This was taken in Janes Bedroom with Jane sat on the edge of her bead 🙂