When she started out, the singer says she had to learn to loosen up onstage because she was so used to the stances she learned in Tae Kwon Do, American Kenpo, Muay Thai, and boxing. She turned to martial arts after encountering some mean girls in an early ballet class. “I wanted to go somewhere where I could learn and not have people throw popcorn at me or try to trip me up intentionally,” she says. “I was a bookworm and wasn’t into things that other girls were into.” She says martial arts are like rocked-out yoga: “It balances me out.”

It also served as inspiration for the tattoo on her right arm. The tiger and dragon piece was a 10-year martial arts anniversary gift to herself a few years back. Like her other ink, it was done at Squirrelly’s Skin Art, in Hubbard, OH. “The tiger-dragon tattoo is the symbol of the balance of power,” says Emii. “It’s also representative of the oppositional forms of martial arts. The tiger is the harder, more aggressive styles, and the dragon embodies the more defensive and fluid-motion styles. It’s a reminder to me that I found the balance within myself and to maintain that and maintain myself.”