Think what you’d like about Rihanna’s horrible Grammys weekend of 2009 … but she’s moved on completely from that dark period in her life. And in a very candid new interview with Elle U.K., the “Stay” singer is opening up about how she feels more empowered than ever right now.

In new photos for the mag shot in Paris by Mariano Vivanco, Rihanna prominently displays the gun tattoo that she inked on the right side of her torso just months after she was beaten up by boyfriendChris Brown. “Everybody wanted to know what was happening in my life. Is she a drug addict? No. Is she an alcoholic? No. Is she a victim? No,” she tells the mag. “Thats why I got the gun. It was a symbol of strength. Ill never be a victim.”

And that’s not the only gun tattoo that Rihanna, who just turned 25 last week, has on her body. She also sports an Egyptian-like falcon in the shape of a gun on one of her feet, ink that she got last summer just days after Brown got in a scuffle with the rapper Drake at a NYC nightclub. “Falcon s—t!!!!” she tweeted in June 2012, following up with, “Falcon: a light that shines in the darkness! Never close their eyes during sleep.”