A central motif throughout Fresh Ink is different forms of art and their importance to various characters. Art often helps marginalized young people survive and thrive despite the prejudices they face. Whether it’s cosplay, music, graffiti, or drawing, art plays a central role for the characters in these stories because through art, they can find joy in life and, more importantly, can be themselves.

In “Meet Cute,” Nic and Tamia meet at a convention for fantasy and science fiction fans. The two bond over the characters they play and their efforts to change those characters to better relate to and fit with minorities like themselves. They express displeasure over the fact that famous franchises like Star Trek and The X-Files vastly underrepresent queer characters, Asian characters and other people of color, and minorities in general. Nic makes it clear that she wants to do something about it: She “want[s] to help make sure that someday movies do include people like gender-flipped Sulu and race-bent Scully” (29). In other words, art is important to her, but she wishes she could see herself and her struggles reflected more frequently than in these characters; she wants to ensure that future generations can experience this by creating art herself.