'The pain that I need to feel': Nancy Mace says she got nine tattoos 'in rapid succession' while serving in Congress
In a February 27, 2026 Politico profile by Michael Kruse, Nancy Mace said she got nine tattoos 'in rapid succession' in late 2023 and early 2024, as her engagement to Patrick Bryant ended and staff churned through her office, describing them as 'the pain that I need to feel.' 'So my story is I am totally broken,' she told Politico. One is the opening line of Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs. Dalloway.' The tattoos had surfaced months earlier in sworn testimony from her former campaign manager, who said Mace called them her 'stress tattoos.'
In a February 27, 2026 Politico Magazine profile, Nancy Mace told reporter Michael Kruse that she got nine tattoos "in rapid succession" while serving in Congress, most of them in late 2023 and early 2024, the same stretch in which her engagement to Patrick Bryant ended and her office cycled through staff. She said she got them, in her words, for "the pain that I need to feel."
Reporting credit: The disclosure comes from Politico Magazine, Michael Kruse, "Nancy Mace: The Origin Story" (February 27, 2026). The quotes below were reported in that profile and reproduced by national outlets including the New York Post (Victor Nava, Feb. 28, 2026). Mace gave the interviews on the record.
"I am totally broken"
Mace framed the tattoos as part of how she was processing trauma. As reported by Politico and reproduced across multiple outlets, she said:
"So my story is I am totally broken.", Nancy Mace, to Politico
"the pain that I need to feel", Nancy Mace, on why she got the tattoos
"I don't know that I'll ever be OK with myself. There's no end of the story where I'm whole.", Nancy Mace, to Politico
In the same passage, Mace tied her continued public activism, showing up to family-court and victims' hearings, to her own survival, telling Politico, "It's just my reaction and my response … and it keeps me alive." (That line is about her advocacy work, not the tattoos specifically; the profile discusses the two together.)
One of the nine: the first line of "Mrs. Dalloway"
Outlets that covered the profile reported that one of the tattoos is the opening line of Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway, "Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." It sits on the left side of her torso, "usually covered by her blazers," and was partially visible in a December 2023 photo. Several write-ups noted that the profile also mentions Woolf later died by suicide, a detail that drew commentary. The remaining tattoos have been described publicly only as inscriptions of words and phrases; no outlet has published a full list of all nine.
A tattoo on the left side of Nancy Mace's torso (circled), partially visible in a photo from Mace's own Instagram, the placement reporting tied to the opening line of Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway," which Mace said is "usually covered by her blazers."
"Stress tattoos", under oath, months earlier
The tattoos had already surfaced in the public court record before the Politico profile ran. In sworn deposition testimony, reproduced in a publicly filed June 2025 motion in GLT2 v. Mace and again in a September 2025 defense reply in Berg v. Bryant, Mace's former campaign manager and longtime consultant Wesley Donehue described what he said Mace called her "stress tattoos."
Donehue testified that during the 2024 primary against Catherine Templeton, Mace "would call and say 'Well I just got another stress tattoo,' and then she was also crying." Asked to explain the term:
Q: "I've heard you mention a stress tattoo. What is a stress tattoo? I've never heard that term."
A: "Well, it's just a tattoo. She would say it helps her with her stress. I never heard that term, either. That's what she called 'em."
Q: "Do you know what she would get stress tattoos of?"
A: "No. I think words.", Wesley Donehue, deposition (as filed)
Her office's response
Mace has been public about a PTSD diagnosis, and her office has cast the tattoos as a private matter of recovery. Her communications director, Sydney Long, said in an earlier statement: "Congresswoman Mace has been very open about her PTSD diagnosis and how she chooses to heal is her decision alone."
Quotes attributed to Politico were reported in Michael Kruse's February 27, 2026 profile and reproduced by the outlets linked below; the deposition exchange is quoted from publicly filed court documents. The underlying matters remain in active litigation, and the parties named in those filings deny wrongdoing.
Sources & related coverage:
- Politico Magazine, Michael Kruse, "Nancy Mace: The Origin Story" (the originating profile)
- New York Post, Victor Nava, "Nancy Mace reveals why she got 9 tattoos in 'rapid succession' while serving in Congress"
- Inquisitr, "'It Keeps Me Alive', Nancy Mace Shares Why She Chose to Get Nine Tattoos While in Congress"
- uInterview, "Nancy Mace Says She Got 9 Tattoos While In Congress So She Experienced 'The Pain' She Needs 'To Feel'"
- FITSNews, "Nancy Mace 'Origin Story' Headlines Politico"
- Court record, Donehue deposition testimony as reproduced in the GLT2 v. Mace motion (June 26, 2025) and the Berg v. Bryant reply on the pseudonym motion (Sept. 29, 2025)
