This woman’s boyfriend wanted to control where she traveled and what beauty treatments she got. But it was this one thing that finally sent her over the edge and pushed her to break up with him.
Real quick, let’s first make sure we’re on the same page about what it means to gaslight someone. Gaslighting is when a person manipulates someone into questioning their own sense of reality, memories, and sanity. It’s often done by denying that something happened (like telling someone they’re imagining things), trivializing feelings (“you’re being too sensitive”), and shifting blame (“I did this because of you”).
Gaslighting, whether intentional or not, is considered a form of emotional abuse.
In a viral video, which has nearly 400,000 views, Hannah Sherman (@creativemillionaire101) says her now ex-boyfriend gaslit her about the recent tattoo he got.
At first, he told her that he was getting a religious tattoo and wanted to get her eyes tatted on him as part of the piece to symbolize God in a more abstract way.
But when he shows her the drawing of the eyes he’s getting, Sherman immediately clocks that he’s getting the features of another woman put on him. Not only do the eyes not look anything like hers, the woman is covered in freckles on her nose, in between her eyebrows, and even under her eyebrow arch.
Sherman only has maybe three freckles if you’re looking closely at her.
“I don’t care if you’re getting an image of me on your body or not. I don’t expect you to. I didn’t ask him to,” Sherman says.
But she does care if he has another woman tattooed on his body, stating that it makes her uncomfortable if the person she’s supposed to marry has another person permanently tattooed on them.
“Your body is, at the end of the day, is what I’m supposed to look at and lay down at night with,” Sherman says. “… I’m upset because now I have to look at my future husband, or supposed to be my future husband, that has a random lady on the arm.”
To Sherman, it would have been fine if he’d gotten the image stitched on a pillow or printed and hung up, but it bothers her that it’s a permanent piece on his body. It’s also the fact that he gaslit her about it being her eyes because he was aware that if he got another woman tattooed she’d be upset.
“He has done things that I’ve asked him to not do repeatedly. Like, he thinks that I’m always going to come back,” Sherman says.
She added that she believes partners need to make sacrifices for each other and take each other’s opinions into consideration, adding that she didn’t go on a trip to London or get lip filler because her ex didn’t want her to.
The video, which is the only thing publicly posted on Sherman’s page, has more than 1,400 comments from people, mostly validating her feelings about the situation.
@creativemillionaire101 #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Hannah Sherman
“Noooo your feelings are valid,” a top comment read.
“Girl plan that trip and DO STUFF FOR YOU!!!!!!! You’re beautiful, and you’re strong!! Never forget,” a person said.
“I’m so sorry you had to go through this. That’s not something he should’ve been ok with doing, especially lying to you about it first. You deserve and will find someone so much more worthy of your [heart]!” another added.
“Clearly he wasn’t the one for you.. you need someone to reason and share life with and not have to fight to feel validated,” a commenter wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Sherman for comment via Instagram direct message.
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