For many of us, January is a time to contemplate how we care for our marvelous bodies, which is why we’re dedicating this issue to physical, emotional, and mental well-being. Tending to our mortal forms changes how we feel, how we look, and how we live, so this month we’re celebrating these couriers of consciousness and examining how best to look after them. All this makes for an absolute banger of an issue to kick off the new year.

On pg. 44, Managing Editor Jackie Bryant explores healing with Japanese bondage after the birth of her own son earlier this year. On pg. 32, Associate Editor Amelia Rodriguez meditates on time-traveling bronze hands and other body-inspired pieces at an MCASD exhibition, and, on pg. 102, Managing Digital Editor Nicolle Monico treks to Utah to push her body to new heights and connect more deeply to herself as she approaches a personal milestone. And that’s just the beginning.

Because our physical forms are sources of pleasure, pain, frustration, and joy, we asked a handful of local writers to intimately and humorously consider their bodies (pg. 82). The essays they gave us touch on size, race, gender, movement, even body hair, offering us all a more empathetic understanding of how others are navigating the world in the bodies they call home.

We’ve also got hilariously regrettable tattoos (pg. 34), an examination of what wellness means in the social media sphere (pg. 26), and a deep-dive into the $31 million revamp of the rooms, restaurants, and (infamous) pool at the LaFayette Hotel (pg. 36).