Kristin Rhodes lies in a chair at the 444 Tattoo studio in Austin, breathing deeply as artist Jordan Hughes applies a stencil of a bluebonnet—the Texas state flower—to her right forearm. She is afraid of needles, and this is only her second tattoo ever: she got her first one impulsively on her thigh many years ago. But this one, highly visible and permanent, feels both deliberate and spontaneous—it marks the moment her home state “turned blue.”