politico
2 entries across the record carry this tag. Browse all dispatches, or jump to a group below.
Dispatches
- February 27, 2026 · Dispatch
'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.'
Media coverage
'I Don't Know That I'll Ever Be OK With Myself'
Kruse followed Mace for months producing a sweeping narrative profile examining her origin story, political rise, trauma disclosure, and erratic recent behavior, concluding with her own admission she may never feel whole. The Daily Beast ran a companion piece the same day highlighting the office's bizarre decor, dog beds, crumbled biscuits, a Trump cardboard cutout wearing a 'MACE' hat, and a profanity-filled whiteboard.
February 27, 2026 · Media