Her 'story is not yet finished': How a Hope Mills woman's tattoo symbolizes mental health
When Melissa “Miss” Jeffries got a tattoo for her 50th birthday earlier this year, she knew immediately what she wanted.
Jeffries, of Hope Mills, walked into Breathless Arts Tattoos in January and told tattoo artist Liz Gruesome she wanted the numbers and symbols ";IGY6" along with the words "NOT All Wounds Are Visible" on her forearm.
IGY6 is shorthand for “I’ve got your 6,” or "I’ve got your back,” a common phrase among military and law enforcement. The semi-colon, Jeffries said, signifies that her “story is not yet finished — there's more to come.”
The color turquoise for the semi-colon symbolizes post-traumatic stress disorder; the IGY is in black to symbolize depression; and the number 6 is in red to symbolize the "bloodshed from suicide and those suffering from PTSD.”
“The words on top 'NOT All Wounds Are Visible' is because you can't look at me and tell right off that I am suffering from PTSD, depression and severe anxiety,” Jeffries said.
Pressures of the job
Jeffries worked in law enforcement for 24 years, spending 19 years investigating and processing what she estimates to be more than 1,500 death scenes.
Her first job was with the Rocky Mount Police Department for five years, followed by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation in 2000 where she was assigned to the Fayetteville area as a crime scene investigator.
In 2013, Jeffries left the SBI to join the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office. She said she was “let go” after disclosing she’d been diagnosed with PTSD.
She attributes the stress to “all the death” she saw during her career.
“My victims range in age from a couple of months old to 87 years old,” Jeffries said. “Every single one of them took a piece of me with them … I wish my brain could forget the things my eyes have seen.”
Jeffries said she can’t forget a house fire she responded to that claimed the lives of four children ranging in age from 4 months old to 13 years old
Jeffries said that as she left the scene, she heard a radio call about how firefighters and rescue workers could meet with counselors at the fire station to discuss what they saw.
Other images that linger in her mind are sexual assault cases, discussions with victims, or a murder in Laurinburg one day followed by another death in New Grove.
More help needed
Jeffries said the same counseling offered to fire crews is not offered to law enforcement, and that it’s still “taboo” to talk about mental health compared to the military starting to acknowledge in recent years that behavioral health is important.
She was diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety in 2013, which led her to find her tattoo design.
“It was exactly what I’ve been wanting, and for people dealing with something similar to see the colors and know what it’s for, or ask about it,” Jeffries said.
Her hope, she said, is to normalize mental health discussions in the law enforcement community to see support that helps prevent burnout.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Why a former North Carolina law enforcement officer got this tattoo
