Tierney Ulmer

 RS: In what ways have you experienced touch, or how has touch changed for you through the pandemic?
TU: I have a chronic illness,I am an essential worker that is constantly around people(I work in the food industry) and I am 1,000 miles from all of my family (I am originally from the Chicagoland area). The only person I can really touch is my partner who I live with. He also is an essential worker (he delivers packages) but he doesn’t take the pandemic as seriously as I do. Wanting to touch my partner but not knowing what he touched or if he’s changed clothes or washed his hands concerns me.


RS: How do you define and or understand resilience as it relates to owning an identity that is marginalized?
TU: Having to keep composure when it comes to being non-binary is necessary. I am an African-American with very large breasts that are still called ma’am and female everywhere I go. Either correcting people constantly or brushing it off can wear a person down but knowing my emotions and keeping composure helps.


RS: How does Austin play a role in your experience of touch and or resiliency?
TU: It’s a city where music can touch a lot of people since it’s the music capital of the world and not being able to feel the touch of the music or other people standing next to me or in a mosh pit was an experience I missed during the pandemic


RS: What was your experience in creating your skin prints?
Tierney provided an audio answer, you can listen here.

[transcript]
”My experience with the skin prints, I was actually very scared. With my new, with my kidney transplant scar, they used fissures, so it’s not really like something I can possibly pull out of my body, but with my larger scar, I was very afraid that something might pop out. It’s also curved like inward into my body, so it was very difficult to find a spot where I could kind of crease that in. It’s also very—not sensitive—but it gets very itchy sometimes, so it kinda hurts. I actually started crying after I put the prints (on), took the prints off. Because I’d never focused so much time on my stomach before...especially when it comes to my scars and examining them, it’s never been a thing that I’d really thought about until this project. So I’m very grateful for that. But it also—not traumatizing, traumatizing would be the wrong word—but it also was a very emotional process.”


RS: Where on your body did you choose to create your prints from? Why were/are these spots important to you? 
TU: I chose my scars from my surgeries. My biggest one is from when I was an infant but the scar has been there all my life. I had developed Necrotizing enterocolitis when I was a baby and 25% of my small intestine had to be removed. The scar stretches across my stomach so I’ve never been able to wear crop tops or two piece swimsuits due to it. It’s a scar that I’m not familiar with and causes me the most anxiety. I also chose my kidney transplant scar because that surgery I do remember and it has caused me the most grief. I was 19 when I had the surgery and I received it from a recipient that was brain dead and I have felt a lot of guilt and sorrow to this day wondering if I deserved this transplant and if I’m honoring my donor and his gift accordingly.