SELF - Do you ever feel other people's feelings?

I just finished gazing through Kat Von D's book The Tattoo Chronicles. It is a year of her life in journal and pictures of the tattoo's she's made. I must say I read a few pages but I don't think I can read the whole thing. Mainly because it is too intense. It may seem odd, but I have the ability to absorb emotions from people and things, a trait that has me walking away from things sometimes when the emotions become too intense for me to handle. On this trip I realized that I can also absorb the emotions of my friends as I would start feeling nervous at the same time my friend would without me having any reason to feel nervous otherwise.
So as I went through the pages, I read a few words and as I did it was as if I was feeling what Kat was feeling at the moment she was writing the book and I had to stop myself from reading. Even some of the pictures carried so much emotion that I was afraid to look at them too close. I wonder if there are more people that have this ability that renders us sensitive to the energies of others through different mediums. Do you feel that way sometimes?