This Might Hurt Tarot by Isabella Rotman

Modern, Queer & Unapologetically Human Tarot

Sometimes the truth hurts. Sometimes it's exactly what helps us heal.

Created by cartoonist and illustrator Isabella Rotman, This Might Hurt Tarot takes the familiar symbolism of the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition and brings it firmly into the modern world.

The medieval scenery is gone.

In its place you'll find contemporary clothing, recognisable environments, diverse bodies, different identities and people who feel considerably more like the world we actually live in.

Queerness is lovingly acknowledged.

Diversity isn't treated as an addition.

And traditional tarot symbolism remains clearly visible underneath it all.

The result is a tarot that feels fresh and contemporary without sacrificing the visual language that has helped generations of readers understand the cards.

🔮 Rider-Waite-Smith for the Modern World

This Might Hurt Tarot doesn't try to reinvent tarot simply for the sake of being different.

Instead, Isabella Rotman asked what would happen if the familiar Rider-Waite-Smith archetypes existed now.

The symbolism remains.

The context changes.

Traditional scenes are reimagined through contemporary people, clothing and environments, creating cards that can feel immediately recognisable to modern readers.

That makes the deck particularly accessible if you're learning tarot.

You can study familiar RWS symbolism without feeling as though every reading has accidentally wandered into medieval Europe.

Experienced readers benefit too.

The foundations remain familiar enough for intuitive reading while the contemporary imagery can reveal entirely different emotional connections to cards you may have known for years.

🌈 A Tarot That Reflects More of Us

Representation is fundamental to This Might Hurt Tarot.

Across the deck you'll encounter people of different:

Genders • Sexualities • Races • Body types • Ages • Abilities

Rotman's characters aren't abstract archetypes.

Many of the Court Cards and selected Minor Arcana are actually portraits of real people from her life.

That gives the deck an unusually personal quality.

These cards don't depict some distant mystical population created solely to inhabit tarot.

They feel human.

Complicated.

Individual.

Real.

And that is exactly what This Might Hurt was designed to celebrate.

🖤 This Might Hurt. This Might Heal.

The title captures something tarot readers discover fairly quickly.

Cards don't always tell us what we'd prefer to hear.

Sometimes growth begins with recognising something uncomfortable.

A pattern.

A truth.

A relationship.

A decision.

A part of ourselves we've been avoiding.

This Might Hurt Tarot doesn't treat difficult cards as something to fear.

Instead, it recognises that bringing something into the light can be the beginning of healing.

That philosophy is beautifully represented in the published edition's additional card:

This Might Hurt / This Might Heal.

A bonus card created specifically for this edition, it brings the central message of the entire deck directly into the reading.

🃏 78 Traditional Cards + Bonus Card

At its foundation, This Might Hurt contains the complete traditional tarot structure:

22 Major Arcana

56 Minor Arcana

Alongside those 78 traditional tarot cards, the published edition includes the additional:

This Might Hurt / This Might Heal

card.

You can choose to keep it within your working deck or remove it when you want to read with a strictly traditional 78-card structure.

That gives you the best of both worlds.

📖 140-Page Full-Colour Guidebook

The Sterling Ethos edition includes a substantial 140-page full-colour guidebook.

The guide explores the complete tarot deck and Isabella Rotman's interpretation of its imagery, helping newer readers understand the traditional symbolism while providing experienced readers with insight into this particular tarot world.

It also includes tarot spreads and additional material to help you begin working with the deck.

This isn't a tarot where contemporary artwork has been pasted over traditional meanings.

Understanding why Rotman made particular visual choices is part of the experience.

🎨 About Isabella Rotman

Isabella Rotman is an Eisner and Ignatz Award-nominated cartoonist and illustrator based in Maine.

Her work frequently explores women, relationships, sexuality, nature and human experience.

She is the author of A Quick & Easy Guide to Consent and illustrator and co-author of Wait, What?: A Comic Book Guide to Relationships, Bodies, and Growing Up.

She is also a founding organiser of Comic Arts Maine Portland.

This Might Hurt Tarot began as a deeply personal independent project.

Originally self-published following a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019, the indie edition eventually went through six print runs before moving into traditional publishing.

The deck is now published by Sterling Ethos, an imprint of Hachette.

🌱 From Indie Tarot to Modern Classic

There's something rather lovely about the publishing journey of This Might Hurt Tarot.

It began as an independent creator project.

Readers found it.

The deck grew.

Print run followed print run.

Then traditional publishing followed.

Its success didn't come from removing the things that made it distinctive.

It came from them.

The contemporary imagery.

Queerness.

Representation.

Traditional tarot foundations.

And Isabella Rotman's unmistakable illustration.

It remains recognisably the deck that began life as an indie project while now being available to a much wider audience.

✨ Why You'll Love This Might Hurt Tarot

• Created and illustrated by Isabella Rotman
• Complete 78-card traditional tarot structure
• Additional This Might Hurt / This Might Heal card
• Modern Rider-Waite-Smith imagery
• Contemporary clothing and settings
• Diverse representation
• Queer-inclusive tarot
• Real people inspired many of the characters
• 140-page full-colour guidebook
• Accessible for beginners
• Familiar enough for experienced RWS readers
• Excellent for intuitive reading
• Powerful for personal reflection and shadow work
• Originally an independent Kickstarter tarot
• Now published by Sterling Ethos / Hachette

🌙 The Reading Experience

This Might Hurt Tarot works beautifully for:

Everyday readings • Relationships • Personal growth • Identity • Shadow work • Self-reflection • Decision-making • Healing • Creativity • Life transitions

Its contemporary imagery can make difficult cards feel particularly immediate.

Sometimes that's comforting.

Sometimes it isn't.

The deck did warn us in the title.

🌈 Perfect For

Modern tarot readers • LGBTQ+ tarot collections • Inclusive tarot collections • Rider-Waite-Smith readers • Beginners • Experienced readers • Shadow work • Contemporary witches • Art tarot collectors • Indie tarot enthusiasts • Isabella Rotman collectors

It's particularly good for someone who wants to learn traditional tarot through imagery that feels more connected to contemporary life.

📦 In the Box

• 78 traditional tarot cards
• Bonus This Might Hurt / This Might Heal card
• 140-page full-colour guidebook
• Full-colour presentation box

📖 At a Glance

Title: This Might Hurt Tarot Deck

Creator & Artist: Isabella Rotman

Colourist: Addison Duke

Publisher: Sterling Ethos / Hachette

ISBN-13: 9781454958314

ISBN-10: 1454958316

Traditional Tarot Cards: 78

Bonus Card: This Might Hurt / This Might Heal

Guidebook: 140 pages, full colour

System: Rider-Waite-Smith

Themes: Modern life, diversity, queerness, truth, healing & self-discovery

Language: English

Original Indie Edition: 2019

Current Published Edition: 2024

Product Type: Tarot Deck & Guidebook Set

🖤 Why We Love It at Oneness Emporium

This is exactly the kind of deck whose history we love.

This Might Hurt started indie.

One creator.

A Kickstarter.

A distinctive idea.

Then six self-published print runs.

Then traditional publishing.

And now a new home with Sterling Ethos.

But underneath all those publishing changes, Isabella Rotman's original idea remains wonderfully simple.

What if Rider-Waite-Smith tarot looked more like us?

Not fantasy versions of us.

Not medieval versions.

Us.

That's why the deck has lasted.

It's inclusive without feeling like representation was added afterwards with a checklist.

It's contemporary without throwing away the tarot structure that makes the cards so readable.

And it can be gentle while still being perfectly capable of pointing directly at the thing you've been avoiding.

To be fair, it did put This Might Hurt on the box.

We can't claim we weren't warned.