Diskin, a Boulder City native who lives in Henderson, bears a tattoo of Nevada with a heart where Las Vegas is. “It’s just a reminder that I’m still here and that I’m able to move forward. It’s definitely a reminder to be grateful for everyday, because in one moment, it can be over. At 10:08 p.m. (on Oct. 1), I thought it was over. When I was on the grass, I’m like, ‘This is it.’ All I thought about was, ‘I don’t want to be here. I want to be home with my boys.’ It’s a reminder to be grateful for every day, because tomorrow’s not promised.”

Watkins’s tattoo represents both the instrument he loves and his choice to confront the painful aftermath of Route 91. “You have to face things. A lot of people, they want to sort of bury it and forget what happened. But if you face it dead-on, if you understand every part of that, you don’t fear it anymore. Now it doesn’t bother me anymore, thinking about it.”

King’s tattoo, which incorporates the Golden Knights into a “Vegas Strong” theme, honors those who aided in his recovery after he was shot Oct. 1. “I wanted it to be unique, because a lot of people have done amazing things for me and my family. I have a scar from the bullet that’s in my chest, so every day, I’m looking at that no matter what. When I look at my scar next to this (tattoo), I’m looking more at a beautiful vision.”

Bryan’s self-designed tattoo is a reminder to keep moving forward even if he can never fully move on. “I’m glad I got it. I love it. It’s part of me. But it didn’t really close anything off, because all that stuff, it’ll always be there. There’s never going to be closure. Nobody’s ever going to know what really happened. So now we just have to get on with everything that’s going on, and if people need help, we need to help those people.”

Frazee and her boyfriend went to Route 91 with a friend and the friend’s boyfriend. The couples were separated amid the gunfire and chaos. Paired sunflowers represents them finding each other afterward. As for those boots, well, Frazee might not be here without them. “The boots that I had on that night were my (work) boots. I’m a vet tech. I play with horses and cows sometimes, and I don’t usually wear those out in public. But that night, I just wanted to be comfortable, so it was kind of a miracle in itself that I had those boots on. Those boots I feel like kind of saved my life. I could run in them.”

When Jason Aldean started playing, Finch, who was seven months pregnant, inched toward the stage. When the shooting started, two nearby women helped shield her stomach before they made their way out of the venue. “Your baby’s not dying on my watch,” Sue Ann Cornwell, a bus driver, told her as they left the concert. Finch remembers trying to keep herself calm, feeling no movement from her baby and worrying for his safety. Xander Cy Finch was born Nov. 26 — a healthy, beautiful boy. A few months later, she got the tattoo: a wristwatch with the orange Route 91 sign and its hands at the time of the shooting. “It’s just a reminder of the good and the bad,” she said. “It was a big night that changed how I look at life now. I feel like it’s more, ‘Take advantage of everything you got, and tell everybody you love that you love them.’”

Tanya Avery was at the concert with her daughter, Aspen, and her 3-year-old great-nephew, L.J. When the shooting started, Aspen Avery shielded the young boy, trying to hold him as low as possible. As they weaved through the crowd, strangers helped the boy — and them — get to safety. Each family member got a different tattoo to remember the event. “Part of the healing for me was just getting everybody together, choosing a tattoo, trying to figure out what we wanted,”Tanya Avery said. “It’s a reminder how things can change in an instant.”

Richardson was attending the Route 91 Harvest festival for the fourth time with her daughter and friends. After the shooting, she became separated from them and ended up on lockdown at the Tropicana Las Vegas. The experience affected her so deeply that she decided to get her first tattoo. The Route 91 poker chip logo, the date and a sunflower (for her home state of Nebraska and to signify the harvest festival) grace the Las Vegas skyline. “When I look at my tattoo, I see gratitude,” she said. “To live every day to the fullest.”

Gianna’s right shoulder blade was hit by a bullet that traveled through her left shoulder blade and collapsed a lung. Another pierced her twin sister Natalia’s left buttock. “It’s like a story on your body,” Gianna said. “It brings strength.” “It’s beautiful art,” Natalia said. “Sometimes I look at it and I’m like, ‘I can’t believe that happened.’” “It’s like we have second chances,” her sister added.

Davis credits her fiance, Gary Wise, with saving her life as the bullets whizzed past them. He pushed her behind a cement pylon. Then he said, “I’ve been hit.” The couple’s matching tattoos include the date, the Route 91 sign, and the orange gun violence and mass shooting awareness ribbon. “I don’t know how I wasn’t shot,” Davis said. “For me, when I got the tattoo, it was for remembering the 58 and staying grateful.” For the woman who has many tattoos, two have particularly special meaning. The tattoo on her left arm, with large, beautiful cursive, is in honor of her friend, to whom she donated a kidney. It reads,“For it is in giving that we receive.” Five years later, she got her Route 91 tattoo on her right arm. “I never dreamed I would receive more than the joy of giving him my kidney,” she said of her friend, who is alive and well. “I never dreamed it would mean some angel would save my life, too.”

Harris arrived at the festival just in time to see Jason Aldean. In picking his shoulder tattoo, Harris added 58 lights, one for each victim. He also included the words “I Won’t Back Down,” lyrics honoring singer Tom Petty, who died Oct. 2, 2017. “It gave me somewhere to put all of my baggage,if you would,” Harris said. “All the emotions in my head, all of the anxiety I had, was now here,” he said.