Sammi Bunch's senior volleyball season ended before it even began.
One awkward landing in a preseason practice sidelined the libero with an ACL tear, keeping her away from the game she's played since she was 10 years old.
As last year's digs leader for the Redbirds, she had been poised for another standout season before the injury cut it short.
Her teammates have encouraged her to stay involved.
"They've helped me still feel like I'm part of the team," Bunch said. "That was a big thing for me — I didn't want to get lost in the program."
What has truly kept Bunch grounded during the first couple of months of her year-long recovery is art, a passion she had long before becoming involved with volleyball.Â
"The night after surgery, I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up working on an illustration project focused on the anatomy of injuries my teammates have had and myself," she said. "Art lets me stop thinking about everything else and just create."
Bunch grew up surrounded by creativity — drawing with her cousin, and spending time with her father, Joseph, a nurse covered in tattoos who once pursued art school.
Inspired by her father's ink and his best friend, tattoo artist Matt Sopron, Bunch received her first tattoo at age 16. Around the same time, she knew she wanted to pursue tattooing herself. Her father was supportive from the start.
"He's bought me all my supplies. If I asked for something for Christmas, Santa wouldn't bring it for me, my dad would," Bunch said.
In her freshman year of college, Bunch started small with stick-and-pokes on herself, her sister and her teammates before moving on to a real ink machine a year later.
She continued to sharpen her craft, balancing classes, practices and games with tattoo appointments in the apartment basement she turned into an art studio.
Word spread quickly. Friends told friends, teammates told teammates, and soon she was tattooing several times a week.
"Last semester, there was maybe only one or two weeks I didn't tattoo someone," Bunch said.
Flowers, animals, words, memorials — each piece taught her something new. Her body tells its own story, too, with around 20 tattoos covering her skin.
Although she grew up making art, Bunch never really considered herself an artist until she arrived at ISU and started taking classes through the fine arts program.
She also studies outside the classroom, spending hours on YouTube tattoo tutorials, scrolling Instagram for inspiration and asking tattoo artists questions whenever she sits in their chair.
"Our art program here is insane," she said. "My classmates and I could talk about anything and critique each other. It's like being on a team, almost. I just busted my butt day and night and got to a good point where I thought, 'Wow, I could really do this now. I can draw well, and I understand it.'"
Since her injury has made painting more difficult, she's leaned heavily into drawing — not only because it's essential for tattooing, but because she loves the precision of it.
When Bunch creates, you can see her emotions come through her work.
"I feel I base a lot of my art on things that are going on in my life," Bunch said. "If I'm sad, that's when I'm going to make my best art."
There was a time, however, when art wasn't a priority, and sports pulled her focus for a couple of years in middle and high school.
Art was always there in the background, though, waiting for her return.
When it was time for Bunch to start thinking of what to study in college and a potential career path, she knew she had to lock back into her creative side.
Looking back, Bunch is grateful she returned to art. The hours spent drawing and tattooing have given her focus and purpose through the slow, frustrating months of recovery.
Bunch is turning a season lost on the court into a chance to grow as an artist and help build the portfolio that might one day land her a tattoo apprenticeship in Chicago. Bunch promotes her work on Instagram @sammi_ink_.
"Getting back into art is probably the best thing I've ever done," said Bunch. "I think that saved my life."
