Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos

Submitted by CCSM:

“I must learn to love the fool in me - the one who feels too much, talks to much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laught and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool.”

- From Love me, love my fool: Thoughts from a psychoanalyst’s notebook by Theodore Isaac Rubin

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.”

- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

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“I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees!”

- The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

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From here:

Kerryn loves Kurt Vonnegut and decided to get “And so it goes” ( a recurring line from Slaughterhouse Five) tattooed on her shoulder.

Finally on the other side of three decades worth of bad shit, Gil decided to get “And so it was” tattooed on her back representing the past that she has moved on from but that made her who she is.

And Meg, the eternal optimist decided to get “And so it will be” on her right arm as a symbol of the beautiful unknown.

This tattoo is a word - “the” - in Shelley Jackson’s Skin: A Mortal Work of Art.

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Artwork from Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

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One night a man had a dream. He dreamt he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints on the sand — one belonging to him and the other to the Lord. When the last scene had flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints and he noticed only one set. He also noticed that this happened during the lowest and saddest times of his life. This bothered him and he questioned the Lord. “Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you would walk all the way with me, but I noticed that during the most troublesome times of my life there was only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why, when I needed you most, you deserted me.”

The Lord replied, “My precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, those were the times when I carried you in my arms.”

- Footprints by Mary Stevenson

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“Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

- Tyler Durden in Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

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This is my 100th post! Thank you to everyone who has been visiting the site since it launched in April. And don’t forget to submit your own tattoos!

“Longing, we say, because desire is full of endless distances.”

- from Meditations at Lagunitas by Robert Hass

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“Cause our days were numbered by nights on too many rooftops.
They said we’re wasting our lives,
Oh at least we know, that if we die - we lived with passion.
They said we’d burn so bright.
We burn this city, and go.”

- Excerpt from the song Burn This City by Cartel

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“Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.”

- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

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