"My tattoo is a phoenix. I got the first when I was 16. I hid it for years"
About this Quote
Then she adds the quiet twist: “I hid it for years.” That line does more work than the phoenix itself. It smuggles in the realities of an actress’s career arc, especially for women coming up in a late-90s/early-2000s industry that prized a particular kind of “clean” marketability. Hiding isn’t shame, exactly; it’s strategy. It suggests she understood early that authenticity has a cost, and that bodies in Hollywood are often treated as product packaging. A tattoo becomes a liability to continuity, casting, branding - a mark that complicates the fantasy.
The subtext is control reclaimed twice: first in ink, then in disclosure. By telling it now, Scott reframes what used to be concealed as evidence of endurance. The phoenix is the headline, but the years of hiding are the plot: a story about negotiating visibility, timing your truth, and choosing when a private scar becomes part of the public self.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reinvention |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Scott, Ashley. (2026, January 17). My tattoo is a phoenix. I got the first when I was 16. I hid it for years. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-tattoo-is-a-phoenix-i-got-the-first-when-i-was-41239/
Chicago Style
Scott, Ashley. "My tattoo is a phoenix. I got the first when I was 16. I hid it for years." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-tattoo-is-a-phoenix-i-got-the-first-when-i-was-41239/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My tattoo is a phoenix. I got the first when I was 16. I hid it for years." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-tattoo-is-a-phoenix-i-got-the-first-when-i-was-41239/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.








