Tattoos = Gender ?
Alex Cregan
In the end, its all needles and process. An ink cartridge or an elixir are interchangeable, someone’s mother is still screaming “irreversible-!” anyway. I still leave changed, a little more tied to this flesh-mass-thing, a little less static and, dare I say, ecstatic? Regardless, those who love us will gush over our new chitin, asking about the growing exoskeleton. It reminds me of being fourteen, doodling wishes into my skin. I dreamed that when they’d seep into my bloodstream they’d become reality, as if it was that easy. In the end, we are all eternally morphing, chameleons shedding skins we’ve long outgrown and still we are shifting.
In the end, its all
needles and process. The pain
is secondary.
The cover of engendered autumn 2025 on a background of dark grey.
On the cover is a heavily textured painting by Jude FireSong consisting of layers of colour, first daubed or smeared, and then speckled. Dominant are red, orange, yellow, light blue, and medium blue though purple, green, and pink also make an appearance.
Beside and below the cover is the following text:
20 writers, poets, & artists
“as I move through the world, people project images of bodies and faces they assign onto me that evoke in themselves desire, lust, joy, disgust, emotions I have no say over. Perceptions against my will. And those images stain my skin and reek. I'm forced every day to carry those stains”
Thokozani Mbwana
engenderedlitmag.com
"a little more tied to this flesh-mass-thing, a little less static and, dare I say, ecstatic?... It reminds me of being fourteen, doodling wishes into my skin."
- Alex Cregan, Tattoos = Gender ?
@floraldisaster.bsky.social
engenderedlitmag.com/autumn2025