This tattoo belongs to Maria Carlos.

“Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.”

English translation: “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

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

(73 votes, average: 4.32 out of 5)

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This is Dominick’s tattoo.

Simply the word “integrity.” I wanted it to be phonetically spelled because of my extreme passion for words.

In college when I learned or came along new words, it excited me to look them up. The word “integrity” comes from my interpretation in a line from “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, my favorite author. Nick Carraway is making an assessment of himself as a man in chapter 3. He thinks:

“Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”

That quote in the book stands out for me every time i read it. Fitzgerald once said, “You can stroke people with words.” I believe it.

(61 votes, average: 4.39 out of 5)

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This is Melanie’s tattoo:

The quote represents the period of transcendence when one is truly in tune with themselves and their surroundings without being consciously aware of it. For example, I am an artist, so I recognize this as occurring when I zone in so completely to the process of the piece.  However, once I realize that this is occurring, the moment is gone.  I no longer see the tree with the lights in it.

When the doctor took her bandages off and led her into the garden, the girl who was no longer blind saw “the tree with the lights in it.”  It was for this tree I searched through the peach orchards of summer, in the forests of fall and down winter and spring for years.  Then one day I was walking along Tinker Creek thinking of nothing at all and I saw the tree with the lights in it.  I saw the backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost charged and transfigured, each cell buzzing with flame.  I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was wholly fire, utterly focused and utterly dreamed.  It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance.  The lights of the fire abated, but I’m still spending the power.  Gradually the lights went out in the cedar, the colors died, the cells unflamed and disappeared.  I was still ringing.  I had my whole life been a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.  I have since only rarely seen the tree with the lights in it.  The vision comes and goes, mostly goes, but I live for it, for the moment when the mountains open and a new light roars in spate through the crack, and the mountains slam.

- Excerpt from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

(61 votes, average: 4.21 out of 5)

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This is Gab’s tattoo.

“When we grab you by the ankles
Where our mark is to be made
you’ll soon be doing noble work
Although you won’t be paid
When we drive away in secret
You’ll be a volunteer
So don’t scream where we take you;
The world is quiet here.”

This is the VFD slogan from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

(92 votes, average: 4.35 out of 5)

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This tattoo belongs to Mercedes:

“To die will be an awfully big adventure.”

- from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

(89 votes, average: 4.44 out of 5)

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I’m back.

This tattoo belongs to Sophia from Barcelona, and it’s an excerpt from the text of the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

Greetings to you, the lucky finder of this golden ticket, from Mr. Willy Wonka! I shake you warmly by the hand! Tremendous things are in store for you! Many wonderful surprises await you. For now, I do invite you to come to my factory and be my guest for one whole day — you and all others who are lucky enough to find my Golden Tickets. I, Willy Wonka, will conduct you around the factory myself, showing you everything that there is to see, and afterwards, when it is time to leave, you will be escorted home by a procession of large trucks. These trucks, I can promise you, will be loaded with enough delicious eatables to last you and your entire household for many years. If, at any time thereafter, you should run out of supplies, you have only to come back to the factory and show this golden ticket, and I shall be happy to refill your cupboard with whatever you want. In this way, you will be able to keep yourself supplied with tasty morsels for allyour life. But this is by no means the most exciting thing that will happen on the day of your visit. I am preparing other surprises that are even more marvelous and more fantastic for you and for all my beloved Golden Ticket holders — mystic and marvelous surprises that will entrance, delight, intrigue, astonish, and perplex you beyond measure. In your wildest dreams you could not imagine that such things could happen to you! Just wait and see! And now, here are your instructions: the day I have chosen for the visit is the first day in the month of February. On this day, and on no other, you must come to the factory gates at ten o’clock sharp in the morning. Don’t be late! And you are allowed to bring with you either one or two members of your own family to look after you and to ensure that you don’t get into mischief. One more thing — be certain to have this ticket with you, otherwise you will not be admitted. -WILLY WONKA.

(61 votes, average: 4.07 out of 5)

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Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland comes out in theatres today!

This is Slithy Toves’ Jabberwocky tattoo:

I’ve been an Alice fan since my grandmother bought me the complete works of Carroll when I was 11. Something from Alice seemed like a natural choice for my tat, and being a voracious reader, I loved the idea of using a line of text rather than an image.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

- Excerpt from the nonsense poem ‘Jabberwocky‘ from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.

Have a great weekend!

(80 votes, average: 3.31 out of 5)

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This is Kerry’s tattoo:

This quote specifically holds a place in my heart because I think it represents the constant struggle to find yourself, and to hold on to it when you do. I’ve been asking myself this question my whole life and I don’t know if I’ll ever have a full answer.

“Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, THAT’S the great puzzle!”

And she began thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of them.

- Chapter 2 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

(56 votes, average: 3.64 out of 5)

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Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you’re at!
Up above the world you fly,
Like a teatray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle little bat!
How I wonder what you’re at!

- “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat” as recited by the Mad Hatter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

This is Katie’s tattoo:

Why did I pick that line?  I knew I wanted some sort of bat tattoo that wasn’t too goth and I knew I wanted to get an Alice in Wonderland quote on my two feet so voila.  Since Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of my absolute all time favorites I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t think of this for months and months!

(82 votes, average: 3.49 out of 5)

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This is Eva’s Alice in Wonderland tattoo.

(80 votes, average: 4.26 out of 5)

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