When My Husband Became My North Star, I Lost Myself

He set the course for both our lives — until I started navigating for myself

Photo: Busà Photography/Getty Images

It wasn’t until months later that I remembered: My husband didn’t want me to get a tattoo. By then the wound of it had long since stopped weeping interstitial fluid, a thin amber tinged with blood and ink. My skin had scabbed over, gone dry, flaked…