Jermaine Shavers, Jr. was a member of his high school step team from Jacksonville, Florida. The group was known as “The Wolf Pack.”

Now a sophomore illustration major, Shavers and his friends decided last winter break to design tattoos in order commemorate their time together.

The tattoo, which is on his forearm, depicts an upside-down wolf. This was intentional, Shavers said, because he wanted his tattoo to always be facing him to remind him to be a leader.

The tattoo also features a red bar crossing in front of the wolf’s eyes, which represents his graduating class’s color, as well as strength and a directionless compass.

Stepping is a form of dance that uses a person’s entire body to produce rhythms through complex clapping, stomping and vocal work. Shavers had grown up stepping at his church with his friends, he said.

Shavers said he was disappointed when he discovered his high school had no team. Alongside his friends, he introduced the style to the student body. Eventually the team was certified, and they began directly teaching the art form to students.

“To be able to teach and to do what I love, there’s no better feeling than that,” Shavers said.

On his ribcage, Shavers has another tattoo that is a quote from author D. H. Lawrence. It goes:

“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.”

This quote reminds him to not regret and to be strong, he said.

Unlike the wolf tattoo, the quote was spontaneous. He and a friend got their tattoos done an hour before their high school graduation. Shavers has never regretted this, he said, but he does laugh when he thinks back on to what happened next.

“I was hurting upstairs,” Shavers said. “People were trying to hug me, and I was just like ‘Ahhh!’”

At Syracuse University, Shavers dances with the Black Reign Step Team and the new student hip-hop troupe, Outlaws. He said he feels lucky to have the friends he has, and the ability to dance and step with the music.

Published on October 6, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact: emmichae@syr.edu