“The prince of Cumberland! that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see me black and deep desires”
- Excerpt from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
This tattoo was submitted by Hilary.
(33 votes, average: 4.39 out of 5)
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I MET a traveller from an antique land,
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
- Excerpt from Ozymandias
This tattoo was submitted by Stella Coombe from Cardiff, Wales, UK.
(19 votes, average: 4.47 out of 5) Loading ...Submitted by S.P. Sullivan:
The tattoo is Kurt Vonnegut’s trademark “backdoor.”
I got this when I turned eighteen because I wanted to do something stupid and impulsive, but not entirely uncharacteristic of me. My father introduced me to Vonnegut; the first thing he said when he saw it was “you know that’s a sphincter, right?”
I’ve grown tired of explaining it to people, mostly because they usually look at me like I’m insane. So, when asked, I inquire to the inquirer, “Have you read Vonnegut?” If yes, it’s relatively easy to explain. If no, I just say it’s an asterisk and leave it at that. I’m often asked if it’s a botched attempt at the Red Hot Chile Peppers logo. So it goes.
Based on Kurt Vonnegut’s infamous asshole doodle, first appearing in Breakfast of Champions
(31 votes, average: 4.29 out of 5) Loading ...Submitted by Kylee:
My tattoo is picture of the inside of a Chambered Nautilus shell. The tattoo symbolizes living in the present because you can’t go back to the past and, also, relying on and learning from your past as it is your foundation for the present. The tattoo was inspired from the poem “The Chambered Nautilus” by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
This was my first tattoo and to me it represents my growth as a person through high school and now college. It reminds me to take advantage of the present day despite the possibility of setbacks in my past.
Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
- Excerpt from “The Chambered Nautilus
(16 votes, average: 3.94 out of 5) Loading ...This tattoo was submitted by Allison, who says:
The tattoo is a drawing of a pair of shoes by Sylvia Plath. It is part of a small collection of her drawings that appears in the back of some paperback editions of “The Bell Jar”.
I’ve had the same copy of the book since high school and always keep it near me.
Drawing from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
(25 votes, average: 3.76 out of 5) Loading ...
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops-at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
— Hope is the Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson
It is my second tattoo. I got it because that poem helped me through
hard times. I was hearing impaired my whole life, and then I lost all
the hearing I had left when I was seventeen years old due to a rare
disorder. I was totally deaf for 7 months. I held out hope that it
would eventually come back. It never did. It happened at the worst
time, it was my last year in high school, I was on the dance team, I
was applying to college. I didnt know any people like me. I was so
alone. When I felt like just giving up and shutting myself out from
the “hearing world”, It sounds crazy but I guess you could say that I
made up a little bird that kept me going. It kept me company. the
bird helped me see the light, made me realize who my friends were,
pushed me to get straight A’s in school, taught me how to dance
without hearing the music, motivated me to go to the college I wanted
to even if it was far away from home, and it helped me use my
adversity in my artwork. I received a cochlear implant that year.
The day they turned it on, one of the first sounds I heard was a bird
singing when I was leaving the hospital. It was vague, because my
brain wasn’t used to hearing again, but I could hear it. It was like
I had set my bird free. So I put the first stanza of the poem on my
body because it is a good reminder of where I came from and how far
i’ve come. And to never forget my little bird.Sincerely,
Amy K.
(44 votes, average: 3.55 out of 5) Loading ...
