Michelle Knight tells the harrowing stories behind each of her 'house of horror' tattoos

Home Top

Michigan student fed up with $800-a-month rent on campus BUILT his own tiny house and now uses solar power and compost toilet to live off the grid - saving himself $6,000 in the process
Trump in front: The Donald leads Hillary Clinton in dramatic new poll giving him 45% to the Democrat frontrunner's 40%
Muslim flight attendant 'suspended by ExpressJet for refusing to serve alcohol because it is against her faith'
'Sex like a pair of maddened wart-hogs': Dr Strangelove screenwriter Terry Southern reveals all in lost letter about Ryan O'Neal and Bianca Jagger's torrid love affair
'Every rose is for every abortion I had there': Michelle Knight tells the harrowing stories behind each of her tattoos - which she got after being rescued from 'house of horrors'
Battle for Chip the traffic chicken: FIVE-way custody dispute over hen 'arrested' for causing gridlock on San Francisco's Bay Bridge
'She's holding up real good': Husband of county clerk Kim Davis says she won't back down - as an Oregon judge is investigated for refusal to perform same-sex marriages
PICTURED: Pregnant Spanish woman who was due to give birth tomorrow killed alongside her partner and five others when rally driver careered into crowd
Kayaker is bitten by a hammerhead shark in California
Toddler's foot and other body parts wash up in lagoon near Chicago's Garfield Park
Third victim of Virginia TV gunman smiles from her hospital bed - as family reveal she is well enough to read and has started to walk again
Court dismisses white lesbian mother's lawsuit after she was mistakenly given a black man's sperm donation
Back in action: Enormous U.S. aircraft carrier makes high-speed turns at sea and practices launching fighter jets after almost two years in maintenance yard
Doctor reveals the unsavory jokes and abuses surgeons carried while operating on vulnerable patients
Argentinian man 'locked wife and 32-year-old autistic son in an iron CAGE and made him eat animal feed and drink gasoline'
Where the 'good guys' cook up crystal meth: Filmmaker gets deep under the skin of Mexican cartels to reveal how armed vigilantes who took on the Knights Templar ended up being just as bad as them
Police arrest girl and two teenage brothers accused of shooting dead two men in 'extreme violence' rampage in Nashville
EXCLUSIVE: Abandoned toys, tiny dust-covered shoes and bombed out windows: The haunting remains of the Syrian home abandoned by drowned Aylan's family following ISIS attack
I saw despair with my own eyes... now we are waking up to the truth: MICHELLE DOCKERY recalls her heartbreaking visit to refugee camp
Back in the deep: Refugees capsize their dinghy on the same stretch of coast where tragic Aylan drowned
Company behind Ashley Madison 'was running an online escort service'
Hunt for man who sexually assaulted 22-year-old British tourist in Central Park
Thinstagrams! The slimming tricks celebrities use to look so trim in their social media selfies
More women than men in a society means more and better sex for everyone (but fewer marriages)

Michelle Knight, 34, got numerous tattoos after being rescued from Ariel Castro's house, along with two other women
She has now revealed that the five roses on her left arm represent the 'abortions' she had inside home
Each time she became pregnant by Castro during her 11-year imprisonment, he would punch her and starve her so she miscarried
Knight also talked about the tattoo of the baby she has on her chest, with the words: 'Too beautiful for this Earth'
On her right arm she has a teddy-bear inking, which she said was a design she drew while a prisoner
Meanwhile, a green dragon snaking over her right wrist is for 'protection'

Published: 23:47 EST, 5 September 2015 | Updated: 04:21 EST, 6 September 2015

View
comments

For many people, tattoos are a way to mark fond memories or express an artistic flair.

But for Michelle Knight, they tell the harrowing story of her 11-year imprisonment inside Ariel Castro's house of horrors, during which she suffered five forced miscarriages and lived in chains.

In a new interview with Newsweek, Knight, who was 21 when she was kidnapped, reveals why she decided to get each of her inkings after finally being rescued from her prison in Cleveland, Ohio.

Shrugging up her left sleeve to show five large roses - covered in speckles of blood - printed down her arm, the 34-year-old explains: 'Every rose is for every abortion that I had in the house.'

Scroll down for videos

Meaningful: Knight's right shoulder bears the image of a brown teddy bear decorated with hearts - a design she drew while she was chained up with extension cords

One rose for each baby lost: Knight's left arm features five large roses, covered in speckles of blood

While imprisoned in an upstairs bedroom - and later, the basement - at Castro's home, Knight was repeatedly beaten up and raped by her attacker, resulting in her becoming pregnant five times.

Each time, Castro would punch and starve her until she miscarried the baby.

And Knight's rose tattoo is not the only inking that has a truly horrific meaning behind it.

On her chest, Knight has a tattoo of a baby and the words: 'Too beautiful for this Earth.'

Meanwhile, her right shoulder bears the image of a teddy bear decorated with hearts - a design that Knight drew while she was strung up with orange extension cords alongside two other women.

And on her right wrist, a green dragon snakes over her skin.

On Knight's right wrist, a green dragon is 'for protection'. A large face on her right calf, which is part-skeleton and part-flesh, represents her past and future lives

'This is a protection dragon,' Knight tells Newsweek.

Protection, presumably, from anyone else like Castro, who abducted Knight in August 2002 while the young woman was trying to find the location of a social services meeting, where she had hoped to discuss regaining custody of her two-year-old son, Joey, who had been placed in foster care.

Joey had been taken away from Knight after, she says, her mother's boyfriend had broken his arm during a fit of violence. The youngster is now 14 and may never know his birth mother's identity.

Knight's other tattoos include a giant face on her right calf, which is part skeleton and part flesh.

'This tattoo represents my life from the past and my life in the future,' the survivor tells Newsweek.

'It says, "My heart is not chained to my situation".'

Knight was freed from Castro's home when Amanda Berry - one of the two women she had been held captive with (the other was Gina DeJesus) - realized the man had forgotten to lock a door.

Before her tattoos: Knight is pictured leaving court after Castro was sentenced to life in prison in 2013

Michelle shows the tattoos on her chest and forearms in a Facebook picture with a friend

Brave: Since the rescue, which made international headlines, Knight (pictured in Facebook photos) has gone on to write a book detailing her kidnapping, abuse and torture at the hands of her abductor, whom she refers to as 'the dude'. She also campaigns to raise awareness of victims of such crimes

Berry fled the house with her six-year-old daughter - whom she had given birth to after being raped by Castro - and made contact with neighbors, leading to the discovery of the other two captives.

Since the rescue, which made international headlines, Knight has gone on to write a book detailing her kidnapping, abuse and torture at the hands of Castro, whom she refers to as 'the dude'.

She also campaigns to raise awareness of victims of such crimes.

'I want people to know that I’m not just a story they threw on TV. I’m a person that has real feelings, just like her, that wants to be heard and wants their story to be out there,' Knight says.

The survivor has, admirably, made the decision not to take legal steps to fight for custody of her teenage son, because she realizes the disruption and trauma that this could bring to his life.

She says that giving birth to the boy in October 1999 was 'one of my happiest memories in my life'.

Castro (pictured, center, pleading with the judge during his sentencing on August 1, 2013) admitted 937 criminal counts of rape, kidnapping and aggravated murder as part of a plea deal

House of horrors: Gina DeJesus (left) and Amanda Berry (sitting next to her) were imprisoned alongside Knight in Castro's house of horrors (right) where they were repeatedly raped and abused

During the interview with Newsweek, Knight also tells of how Castro initially lured her into his car by informing her that he knew the direction to the social services meeting that she needed to attend.

He then persuaded her to go into his house by claiming his dog had just given birth, convincing Knight that she should take one of the puppies back for her then-toddler son, she says.

Once inside the property, Castro locked her in an upstairs bedroom, chained her up with extension cords and masturbated over her. He then strapped a sock to her mouth with duct tape and left.

'The first thing that came to my head was, holy s***, I’m gonna die here,' Knight says.

Although Knight did not die, she remained locked up in the house for nearly 4,000 days, during which she was repeatedly raped, banned from showering and forced to go to the loo in a bucket.

Celebrity friend: Knight poses with actress Taryn Manning, who plays her in Lifetime's Cleveland Abduction

Now, as a free woman, Knight finds simple things - like watching the clouds go by - fascinating.

Castro, who was arrested within hours of Knight's rescue on May 6, 2013, pleaded guilty to 937 criminal counts of rape, kidnapping and aggravated murder in court as part of a plea deal.

He was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole - plus 1,000 years.

He committed suicide in his cell just one month into his prison term.