DOTM Oct 2026: French Revolution Women

This month's design is dedicated to the thousands of women in Paris, who on 5 October 1789 created a key turning point of the French revolution. Angry over the high price and scarcity of bread, they ransacked the city armoury for weapons and besieged the Palace of Versailles. One eyewitness heard the women say the following: 

"Men didn't have enough strength to avenge themselves and that they would demonstrate that they were better than men."

The women demanded to meet with the king, Louis XVI, with the intention of requesting bread and progress on completing a new, revised constitution limiting the power of the monarchy and establishing new rights for the population. A small delegation of women was granted a meeting with the king, who gave them written agreement on their demands. Meanwhile, other women occupied the national assembly, sat in the speaker's chair and disrupted decision-making. The following morning, the crowd broke into the royal château and killed two royal bodyguards, after which the king agreed to leave and relocate to Paris, where martial law was declared in an ultimately-futile attempt to quell dissent.

Once again, we were lucky to have Italian tattoo artist Fede Borgia agree to work on a design to capture this inspiring story of women power. She gave her work the French title "La Revolution Est Femme" which translates to "The Revolution Is Female/Woman". The placard in the background reads "Du Pain" which means "Some Bread" and is a reference to the fact that it was the high price and scarcity of bread that sparked the women's revolutionary actions.