Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos

AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.

The earth—that is sufficient;
I do not want the constellations any nearer;
I know they are very well where they are;
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens;
I carry them, men and women—I carry them with me wherever I go;
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them;
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)

- Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road
(full text)

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“For those who belong nowhere, and for those who belong to one place too much to belong anywhere else.”

- Alden Nowlan

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I’m a fountain of blood
In the shape of a girl
You’re the bird on the brim
Hypnotised by the Whirl

Drink me, make me feel real
Wet your beak in the stream
Game we’re playing is life
Love is a two way dream

Leave me now, return tonight
Tide will show you the way
If you forget my name
You will go astray
Like a killer whale
Trapped in a bay

I’m a path of cinders
Burning under your feet
You’re the one who walks me
I’m your one way street

I’m a whisper in water
Secret for you to hear
You are the one who grows distant
When I beckon you near

Leave me now, return tonight
The tide will show you the way
If you forget my name
You will go astray
Like a killer whale
Trapped in a bay

I’m a tree that grows hearts
One for each that you take
You’re the intruder hand
I’m the branch that you break

- Bjork, Bachelorette

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he couldn’t believe how easy it was
he put the gun into his face
bang!
(so much blood from such a tiny little hole)

problems have solutions
a lifetime of fucking things up fixed in one determined flash

everything’s blue
in this world
the deepest shade of mushroom blue
all fuzzy
spilling out of my head

- Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral

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“Ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row.”

- Holden Caufield in Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Thanks to Cat for letting me post this.

“Those people were overjoyed; they took to their boats. I thought it less like a lake and more like a moat. The rhythm of my footsteps crossing floodlands to your door have been silenced forever more. The distance is quite simply much to far for me to row it seems farther than ever before. Oh no.
I need you so much closer. I need you so much closer. So come on, come on. “

- Death Cab For Cutie, Transatlanticism

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“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

Thanks to Darren for letting me post this.
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“Contrariwise,” continued Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”

- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

Thanks to Jazzi for letting me post her tattoo.
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“The Greeks who were locked up in the Cyclops’ cave lived a tranquil existence as they awaited their turn to be devoured.”

- Rousseau, On the Social Contract, ch. IV “On Slavery”

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Braille Tattoos by Klara Jirkova:

body modification which purpose is not just to decorate the skin but to be touched and read. opportunity for blind people to have a meaningful body alteration, but also something what could be used by those who live or work with blind people as a new attempt to their way of perceiving

(excerpt from her site)

bibliophil(e (’bib li eu fil). [a. F. bibliophile, f. BIBLIO- + Gr. bilos friend.] A lover of books. (O.E.D.)

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there,
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference !

– Robert Frost (1874–1963)

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“because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”

- Jack Kerouac, On The Road

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“She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.”

- Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

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“I’m breaking my attachment to physical power and possessions, because only through destroying myself can I discover the greater power of my spirit.”

- Tyler Durden, Fight Club

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