Introduction

When I first started drawing This Might Hurt Tarot in 2015, I was creating a deck that accurately and adoringly reflects my world. My world is complicated and rich. It is queer and diverse. There are disabled people, fat people, brown people, Black people, gay people, trans people, people who dye their hair and ride scooters and have big thighs and are covered in tattoos. Many of these cards are portraits of my friends, my family. This deck is more to me than a modern reimagining of Arther Waite and Pamela Smith’s historic deck. It is a loving portrait of the rich tapestry of my life.

The phrase "this might hurt" is something that I have been using for my work for a while, long before I started drawing the tarot deck. I draw comics that are surreal, dream-like exercises in trying to understand and heal from issues in my personal life. The comics are generally a bit sad but also relatable and, overall, hopeful. "This might hurt" felt like an apt descriptor of this work. When I started reading, studying and drawing tarot, I was struck with its similarities to my own work. The cards are going to tell you what you need to hear. The future might not be bright. It might be HARD. But that's okay. Most things worth doing might be hard. Most things worth doing might hurt.

I self-published This Might Hurt Tarot in 2019 with the help of Kickstarter backers, the United States Postal Services, and some very generous and helpful friends. Ever since, folks have been writing to me, saying that they see themselves in this deck. Turns out, worlds are shared. I had drawn my own little complicated, beautiful universe, and behold: people were finding themselves within it. Their own friends, their own family, their own tattoos, genders and big thighs. What could be better than that?

I hope you see yourself in this deck. I hope it makes you feel seen. I hope it gives you some really good readings, and I hope it becomes one of your favorite ways to talk to yourself. Because at the end of the day, that is what I believe a tarot deck is for. You may find this jarring, but I want to say it: for me, there is no magical force, god, spirit, universe or otherwise, that controls which cards are drawn in accordance with the future. If you believe in these things, then that is great—more power to you. But I believe the real magic is in the interpretation. Tarot puts forth a language for talking about our inner and outer selves. The cards are brilliant because each one represents an archetype or potentially universal human experience. Your interpretations of these concepts are reflections of your inner world. When I draw a card that represents a universal human experience, I don’t consider that magic, but when I look at a card and think “well, of course, this relates to the individual human experience that I am personally going through,” that is where the magic is. 

I hope you have extraordinary readings. I hope you have an extraordinary life.

Isabella