I love Halloween so much I keep decorations up year-round and have a jack-o’-lantern tattoo

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Let’s get something straight: Halloween is the best day of the year. If you disagree, that is 100% OK; you would be incorrect, but that is OK, too. As far as holidays go, October 31 may face intense competition from National Old Stuff Day on March 3 or August 11’s Global Kinetic Sand Day, but it still always comes out on top.

What other date lends itself to theme parties, elaborate costumes, and spooky-movie screenings? As a tribute to my favorite holiday and lifelong obsession, I have dedicated many corners of my small apartment — and a solid 3 square inches of my body — to the wonder that is Halloween.

The author’s cat, Rorschach, wearing a Halloween-themed bandana. Courtesy of the author My partner decorated our apartment 2 years ago for my birthday

Two years ago, just before I turned 32 — my second pandemic-era birthday — I awoke to the sound of my partner beckoning me into our apartment’s living room. There, I saw vibrant pumpkins in all colors and sizes, cardboard gravestones, and a scowling creature that can be described only as “raven meets bat.” It felt like the Scorpio equivalent to Christmas.

About that time, I’d been struggling with an especially bad bout of depression, but walking in to see every eerie, black-and-orange, spiderwebbed decoration my partner could pick up during a morning trip to Lowe’s — it was the first time I smiled in days and an incredibly sweet gesture that reinforced just how deeply we know one another.

Halloween decorations at the author’s apartment. Courtesy of the author We never took the decorations down — and I love it

Since that day, we have maintained a consistent, spooky aesthetic throughout our home. For instance, one of the most prominent features of our living room is a cardboard gravestone with a small skeleton buddy, for whom a tiny pumpkin makes the perfect substitute head. It’s a strange focal point — I’m trying my best not to make a dad joke about putting all our focus into hocus pocus — but I find the little guy endearing.

Halloween decorations at the author’s apartment. Courtesy of the author I’ve loved Halloween for as long as I can remember

My mother, who fully supported my childhood (and adult) obsession with Halloween by sewing me elaborate costumes and baking me pumpkin-shaped birthday cakes, crocheted several stunning Halloween-themed pieces for me, including a ghostly design that sits on our console among other seasonal items, as well as soft pumpkins made from yarn and clove sticks.

Halloween decorations at the author’s apartment. Courtesy of the author

Even our bathroom isn’t fright-free: On our countertop sits one of Bath & Body Works’ Halloween hand soaps. (Shoutout to Bath & Body Works, by the way, who’ve been launching my favorite spooky collections every October for years — the little haunted carriage on the ghost doily is one of the brand’s covers for its scented plug-ins.)

The author’s jack-o’-lantern tattoo. Courtesy of the author

My fandom extends well beyond our home, though. I’ve always been a fan of impulsive tattoos, so when I arrived at a tattoo shop several years ago without any idea what I wanted to have tattooed on me, I quickly concluded that it was finally time to cement (in ink) my love for the best day of the year with — what else — a grinning jack-o’-lantern.