I'm trying to figure out a good placement for what would be my fourth or fifth tattoo, depending on how you count them. hopefully this counts as "literary", as well...
( details behind the cut )

Finally! I grew up with my mother reading Esiotrot by Roald Dahl to me most nights before I went to sleep, and it's always been my favourite childhood book. For those who haven't had their coffee yet this morning, Esiotrot = Tortoise backwards =]
( ESIO TROT, ESIO TROT, TEG REGGIB REGGIB! )

translated text or original text?

i've always been curious because i've thought about getting certain quotes in their original language. however, would i be better off with a translation if this is how i understand it?

thoughts, pretty please.

I would love to see anyone's Steinbeck tattoos, especially quotes or one-worders. I'm thinking about getting the word "Timshel" incorporated into a tattoo I'm planning but am not sure if I want just the word or a phrase from Lee's speech on timshel or "Thou mayest".

i gotta new tattoo yesterday and am too excited to wait for it to heal to show it off to the interweb

( my purdy ladyy )

♥ The Darwin Awards, named in honor of Charles Darwin, salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it - thereby ensuring that the next generation is descended from one less idiot. We applaud the heroic self-sacrifice of these noble men and women, who gave their all to improve the human race.

Of necessity, this Award is usually bestowed posthumously.

♥ In order to qualify for a Darwin Award a person must remove himself from the gene pool via an "astounding misapplication of judgement." Three liters of sherry up the butt can only be described as astounding.

♥ This is a true Darwin Award trifecta: two people die, while in the act of procreation, due to an astonishingly poor decision. Bottom line: If you put yourself in a precarious "position" at the edge of a pointy roof, you may well find yourself coming and going at the same time.

♥ The Darwin Awards provide ample evidence that huimans have no problem shuffling off this mortal coil as a result of plain old bad decisions. But adding mind-addling drugs to the decision-making process further impairs judgment and increases risk-taking behavior, setting the stage for some amusingly lethal acts of stupidity. From jumping into a bear cage while drunk (page 223) to partaking in alcohol enemas (page 4) acute inebriation has been the impetus behind many Darwin Awards.

♥ In a world full of wonders man invented boredom. So work time becomes playtime. If you work in an office, you reproduce your naughty bits on the copy machine. If you work for an arc welding company? A plastic bucket, welding materials, and a single spark can combine for a playdate with a bang.

♥ Any story that begins, "Well I was building a pipe bomb," can never end well.

♥ FAQ: How can I avoid a Darwin Award?

Take a few personal pledges:

"I will keep pointy metal objects away from electrical wires."
"I will not suck bees into a vacuum cleaner."
"I will not disable the safety."
"No rooftop romantic interludes for me!"

Beware of the following ideas:

"Instead of following standard procedure..."
"Attempting to impress the lady..."
"So he could save himself time..."
"They tested the ice by jumping up and down."
"A case of beer went into the planning."
"He is still convinced that the toadstool is harmless."
"He refused to let anyone call an ambulance."
"He thought he could outsmart the police."
"The diver had kissed hundreds of sharks."
"He deceived the radiation control supervisor."
"It's a nice snake. Nothing can happen."

Heed good advice:

"Never surf on a flooded street."
"We urge people not to drive with a burning grill in the vehicle."
"The stupidity of cutting through power cables should be obvious."
"Tossing random chemicals down the drain is not wise."
"Only an idiot would jump into the bear cage."

~~The Darwin Awards: Next Evolution, Chlorinating the Gene Pool by Wendy Northcutt.

Does anyone have any Stephen King tattoos or even tattoos OF your favorite author? If so, may I see? Make sure to leave their names aswell :) Thank you!

Hello! I've had my heart on getting this quote from The Little Prince tattoo'd on me since last summer: You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. The only thing I'm unsure about is font and placement.

In terms of font, I want something realy classy and neat looking. I'm really fond of Jane Austen and Renaissance, but I'm a bit paranoid that Jane Austen is going to bleed and become difficult to read over time.

( Font Examples )

As for placement, I haven't the faintest idea. I like how the quote looks with the forever sandwiched between the two commas, so I don't really want to split it into two lines, but if it must be done, I'd like it split how I've done so in the image. I don't want it on my back because I have bacne scars (TMI, I know) and I don't want it on my stomach because I plan on having children in the future and I'm terrified of the tattoo abuse that would occur. Hmmm... I think that's around it. I know I sound really picky, but I would REALLY appreciate any suggestions you guys could offer and I promise to keep an open mind :)

i'm finally posting things from NYC!
i had such a great trip and met some really really awesome people! i hope to return in a couple months, and i hope to see you all again, and maybe meet more.
i caught a cold by the time i was done working, so i didn't go wild in the big city ... maybe next time!?

anyways, here ya go!( look )

In reference to a conversation I was just having:

"No one can read two thousand books. In the four hundred years I have lived, I've not read more than a half dozen. And in any case, it is not the reading that matters, but the rereading. Printing, which is now forbidden, was one of the worst evils of mankind, for it tended to multiply unnecessary texts to a dizzying degree."

And in reference to pretty much my view of power:

"Elections were called, wars were declared, taxes were levied, fortunes were confiscated, arrests were ordered, and attempts were made at imposing censorship--but no one on the planet paid any attention."

--Jorge Luis Borges, "A Weary Man's Utopia"

“Poets are not so scrupulous as you are. They know how useful passion is for publication. Nowadays a broken heart will run to many editions.”
“I hate them for it,” cried Hallward. “An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. Some day I will show the world what it is; and for that reason the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray.”

- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

can i see your awesome shin tattoos?

xposted to girls_with_ink

"A stranger enters a god-forsaken town locked in conflict between two factions, where both sides are equally bad and repugnant, and the audience welcomes the swathe of destruction that the hero creates as he exacts justice. There is something inherently appealing about this scenario. It speaks to a desire latent within all of us: that some agency will come and clean up the mess we have made of our society."

--Justin Howe, "Yojimbo", Directory of World Cinema: Japan

Free digital copy of this book available at http://worldcinemadirectory.org/ . It's decent, I'm disappointed to already know quite a bit about these movies from my own viewing of them and reading into Donald Richie and Tom Mes, but for anyone interested in Japanese cinema in general and not already familiar with it, it's a good place to start.

My heart is weak and unreliable. I try to burden it as little as possible. If something is going to have an impact, I direct it elsewhere. My gut, for example, or my lungs. When I pass a mirror and catch a glimpse of myself, or I’m at the bus stop and some kids come up behind me and say, “Who smells shit?”—small daily humiliations that are par for the course—these I take, generally speaking, in my liver. The pancreas I reserve for being struck by all that’s been lost. It’s true that there’s so much, and the organ is so small. But. You would be surprised how much it can take. When I wake up and my fingers are stiff, almost certainly I was dreaming of my childhood. All the times I have suddenly remembered that my parents are dead (even now it still surprises me to exist in the world while those who made me have ceased to exist): my knees. To everything a season; to every time I’ve woken only to make the mistake of believing for a moment that someone is sleeping beside me: a hemorrhoid. Loneliness: there is no organ that can take it all.

- The Last Words on Earth, Nicole Krauss

(ie the short story upon which The History of Love is based)

Tonight I made soup!  I started with this recipe and tinkered with it a little.  ( Follow the bouncing ball... )

my new literary tattoo, my eighth in total.
inspired by the book the time traveler's wife. i believe it's actually from a poem by andrew marvell called to his coy mistress.
i adore this book and this line jumped out at me. i love what it means to henry and clare within the book but i'm not so sure it actually transpires to my life at all. but i'm okay with that, i don't think all of my tattoos need a meaning personalised to me other than i simply loved the idea. i don't want to try and attach meaning where there is nothing but adoration.
it's not a direct quote, i shortened it. the original is 'had we but world enough, and time'
anyway, enough babbling and on to the pictures.

I also got a Mickey Mouse logo behind my ear at the same time, but that's not literary :p

Photographer: Carol Hague
Number of Photos:3
Theme(s): 4, 34, 37,
( I'm baaaaack! :-) )

Hey literary lovers. My name is Sara and I currently run a literary blog with a friend of mine. We are participating in a new feature called 'Tattoo Tuesdays' (created by our good friend Tara) where we do a post featuring one kick ass person sporting a literary tattoo that we love.

Before we start just randomly picking pictures off the internetz we thought we would ask if there was any one out there willing to let us feature them! Nothing too hard we just put up the picture and hopefully a little blurb about your reasoning behind choosing it.

If any one would be excellent enough to offer up their tattoos for our readers viewing pleasure we would be forever grateful!! Just comment back here or shoot me a PM if you want to participate!! You all rock either way.

----EDIT----
Thank you so much to everyone that has offered their tattoos up so far!!! We are going to try to showcase certain people as well as themes  (exmp: Shakespeare tattoos).  If would be wonderful if those interested could either e-mail (scauvi1@gmail.com)  me with their pic/story or PM me.  Other wise I will try to contact you all slowly but surely as we get our posts up!! Thanks so much again.

Also be sure to check out 25HourBooks  the blog that started this excellent idea.  I am sure she would be happy to feature any of you as well.

got ink todaaayyyy. :D

i chose the musical CATS logo, the eyes, as my simple "swallow" chest piece. (they're placed where the swallows usually are.) this musical has been a part of my life for about nine years and i've so many good memories and influences from it that i made it a part of me forever.

.. how fitting. Now and Forever.

( it's funny cuz that's the slogan. )

whatchu guys think? help on the tags, please!

there's an evil twin at ihearttattoos

NOTE: i slapped this post up here because the songs from CATS came from a literary source. T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats was the inspiration for this play, so it definitely does have literary ties! hope that's peachy.

After years and years of planning, I have finally found a subject and design for my first tattoo, and had it done on the 30th of December.

Yes, it's a quote from Harry Potter, and while that is not the main reason why I got it, I am also aware that it is not everybody's cup of tea around here. Still felt the urge to share.
( Now, here's the multilayerd spaghetti plate of meaning )( Now, here's the multilayerd spaghetti plate of meaning )