Literary Tattoos

[thesummerqueen]

As some of you may have found by searching, and as some of you already know, we have quite a few members here who have tattoos and are interested about them. We also have quite a few members who love reading.

There's something incredibly special-seeming to me about a tattoo inspired by something you've read - a poem, a lyric, a quote, a phrase from a book. These books and songs become our friends, our comforting companions, in a way that art, which doesn't inspire the same active participation, doesn't.

I read a book called "The Word Made Flesh" some time ago, which I encourage others to read if you enjoy that sort of thing. The explanations behind the tattoos pictured there range from the smile-inducing to the tear-jerking.

I'm in the process of healing from the first phase of having Sagan's "We are Star Stuff" tattooed on my arm. On the back of my neck is a quote from a James Allan essay which reads, "The Oak Sleeps in the Acorn." The next two tattoos I'm going to get are quotes from Fellowship of the Ring: "Keep Your Feet" and "May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out."

I'm going to share some of the favorites I've collected from the internet, but feel free to share your own quotable tattoos, or your own favorites, or quotes that would inspire you to ink them into your own flesh. I'll probably find many more as my feeds update.

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"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

- To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee



"You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise." - Maya Angelou, Still I Rise



Not a quote, but I can't choose just one quote from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," and this one image represents for me the inspiring and defining part of a poem that has stuck with me and affected me since I first read it at the age of 17.

"Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach."

- T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock




"re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."

- Walt Whitman, preface to Leaves of Grass


"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming."

- Pablo Neruda


Because Lovecraft.



I discovered Neil Gaiman thanks to the Sandman Comics when I was in Middle School. His writing has haunted me ever since. For those who might know him only as a script writer for Doctor Who, or Beowulf, go read "American Gods", or "Stardust" (the movie botched it) or The Sandman, which is dark and heavy and rich, or the retelling he did of a Japanese fairy tale, which has the most beautiful watercolor illustrations and equally beautiful prose.

"Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly."

— Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections



Listen to Mustn'ts, child, listen to the Don'ts.
Listen to the Shouldn'ts, the Impossibles, the Won'ts.
Listen to the Never Haves, then listen close to me.
Anything can happen, child, Anything can be.

-Shel Silverstein



A quote that inspired my screenname years ago, and something that will probably decorate my own body one day:

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer."

- Albert Camus, The Stranger



I could decorate my body all over with quotes from "Le Petit Prince"

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Just to be complete, here's mine:



“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.” - James Allen

[Something completely different]

"Mors certa, hora incerta est" will be done on my right arm, once I manage not to get drunk on the money I saved up for that purpose.

Other than that, I am still not sure if it shall be Ginsberg, Schiller or Brecht on my back.

[Shell B]

On my left arm.

[John V]

@OP: Interesting stuff. What's the literary significance of the one on your butt that says "This End Up"?

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On my left arm.

Huh, never thought I'd kudo a tattoo, but that is really cool.

[Angrboda]

Never considered a purely literary tattoo. I've suggested I might get the Chinese character for Tao on my shoulder. Whenever I do, people tell me I'm boring. "Oh well."

[Shell B]

Just make sure it is not the character for soup.

[Autumnlicious]

I like soup.

A 'beautiful soup' pairing of characters may raise eyebrows but what could I say if someone showed me Chinese characters and said "Soup"?

Probably "Soup is good."

Better than strength or a bunch of other tropes.

Have I mentioned I like soup?

[Faith No More]

Here's a good Hitchiker's quote that would make a good tattoo, although it might be a little long.

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

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Shit, I have to make that my sig now.

[Angrboda]

Yeah, if it weren't so long, I might do Democritus, or something similar.


"By convention there are sweet and bitter, hot and cold, by convention there is color; but in truth there are atoms and the void."
— Democritus

"Shì shì wú ài" is another possibility, but only because I love saying it.

[Shell B]

Syn, I was referencing "The Big Bang Theory." Penny's tattoo is the Chinese character for soup, but she thinks it means something like courage. Not exactly sure on that part. It always cracked me up. Then again, my elvish could actually say, "Hobbits are gay." Who the hell knows?