Lady Gaga Describes How Paralyzed She Felt Before Her Oscars Performance

The singer explains why she got matching tattoos with survivors afterward.

ByABC News
March 4, 2016, 3:46 PM

— -- Lady Gaga made headlines Sunday for delivering one of the most moving moments of the Oscars: performing "Til It Happens to You" alongside survivors of sexual assault.

A few days later, she and a few of the people who joined her on stage got matching tattoos to commemorate the event.

The singer, who said she suffers from chronic pain stemming from her own sexual assault, told SiriusXM’s “Morning Mash Up” that her new friends gave her the strength and reassurance she needed to pull off the number.

"I was really, really having a hard time getting ready for this performance," she admitted. "I was on the floor of my dressing room and my team was telling me to be strong and I was like, 'Don't you tell me how to feel!' I was really losing it."

"I went out there and I met the survivors and I just started crying and I had no makeup on, my hair wasn't done. ... I just said, 'I'm sorry I can't be this for you. I'm sorry I can't be Gaga for you right now,'" she continued. "They said, 'No, no, it's more real this way,' and then one girl said, 'I really want to get matching tattoos.' She was trying to make me feel not alone and she was dead on."

After that woman made the suggestion, Gaga, 29, asked the group who else felt pain as a result of what happened to them. When everyone raised their hands, she said, "I knew I wasn't alone."

"I ended up getting that tattoo because it was what they said to me that made me feel like the pain was lessening," she continued. "My healing process has now begun because I've told somebody and I know I'm not alone."