Goodbye!

The Establishment ran from October 2015 to April 2019. We championed the voices and stories of those marginalized by mainstream media, publishing more than 4,000 stories by more than 900 writers. Thank you to everyone who supported us and made The Est. shine. (If you can't find the story you're looking for here, check out our entire archive on Medium!)
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Ace Ratcliff

Ace Ratcliff is a freelance writer working in Oakland, CA with her two dogs, two cats, two goldfish, and innumerable plants. She lives with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, dysautonomia, and endometriosis, which all make for a particularly rebellious meatcage. She’s an artist, a freelance writer, a photographer, and former mortician. Ace writes about disability inclusion and representation and has bylines at io9, Huffington Post, Self Magazine, Bustle, Bitch Media, and elsewhere. When not reading, she’s probably tweeting: @mortuaryreport
Posted on October 26, 2018 October 29, 2018

Tattoos, Pain, And Incurable Illness

Ace Ratcliff
Written by
Ace Ratcliff
Posted in
Brain+Body
Tagged
bodies, chronic pain, chronic-illness, disability, tattoo
a skull set in front of a wall of tattoo flash

I wasn’t so focused on the painful bite of the needle anymore, or wondering when the session would end. I started to look forward to the distraction of the hurt. It was a hurt I could opt-into, one I could select. Read more

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