BART Connects: This rider uses their BART System Map tattoo to give directions

Sam Johnson sports a tattoo of the BART system map on their bicep.

When Sam Johnson sees someone lost in a BART station, they roll up their sleeve and show them a bicep.

Etched five layers deep into the epidermis of Sam's right arm is a tattoo of the BART System Map. It's Sam's first and only tattoo, and in a pinch, it comes in handy.

"I've helped a bunch of people figure out where to go," Sam said. "I point to my arm and say, 'We're here in Concord, you're going to transfer to this station, then ride along here, and get off at this station.'"

It's a practical tattoo but also a piece of art, an homage to the Bay, a love letter to transit. And let's be honest, said Sam, "It looks good on me."

Sam grew up in El Cerrito and now lives in Concord, where they're studying technical theater at Diablo Valley College. Sam still remembers being six years old and waiting for their Youth Clipper card to arrive in the mail. They still have the card - a memento of BART rides past and how much they've grown.

Sam took BART all the time as a kid with their mom and brother and then on their own when they didn't have a driver's license and just wanted to get out.

"Sometimes things in my house were not super fun and awesome," they said. "Being able to get on BART and go somewhere was comforting."

Sam felt safe in a BART station, where they knew a train would never fail to arrive.

"Every time I saw the train pulling into El Cerrito, felt the wind blowing, the sound of it on the tracks, I felt at home," they said.

BART is "the veins of the region" and a gateway to community for Sam. When they were growing up, they were pretty shy and introverted. BART and the requisite interactions with strangers on trains "gave me the ability to be myself."

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