Books

This belongs to Alaina.

This is my first tattoo. I actually waited until I was 30 to get it, and I am glad that I did. I love Slaughterhouse-Five, and use this quote as a constant reminder not to dwell on things that I cannot control. As a teacher, it has started more than one conversation with students that didn’t necessarily trust authority figures and wanted someone that could relate to them, however small a degree.

This was posted as a part of “So it Goes” Saturdays. The phrase “so it goes” appears in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five 106 times. Can you help me collect 106 “so it goes” tattoos? 95 down, 11 to go.

This belongs to Emily T.

The font was somewhat custom, a mix of two or three Microsoft Word fonts.

I’ve read Slaughterhouse-Five countless times over the last few years; it always reads a different way. Each time I get a different insight, a new understanding of the book. There’s too many feelings to express what Vonnegut sums up in three words; So it goes.

“And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.

So she was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes.”

This belongs to Erika.

This is the ‘Slaughterhouse-Five‘ tattoo I got just after graduating from uni. I was introduced to the book in my first week and the repetition of the line throughout it really stuck with me even when many of the others in my class found it an insensitive reaction to the tragedies in the story. Long story short, I had a hard time at uni, I didn’t make friends and slowly got more separated from the ones I did have. At its core I’ve always thought ‘so it goes’ is a lamentation on and an acceptance of the bad, while understanding things were good once and will be good again. I figured it was a fitting goodbye to 4 years that were really hard and I wouldn’t change, but was happy to leave behind.

This belongs to Josh.

I just got this yesterday [ed. note: submitted April 2013] and was comparing to other people with the same tattoo. My name is Josh Howell, and I’m a professor in Norfolk, VA! This is on my left arm.

This was posted as a part of “So it Goes” Saturdays. The phrase “so it goes” appears in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five 106 times. Can you help me collect 106 “so it goes” tattoos? 95 down, 11 to go.

This belongs to Jecy.

So it goes: life is an endless cycle not excluding death and moving on. No losses are irrevocable: in the past, the present and the future, life will remain in existence. And in life, love will always be there.

This belongs to Clarisse.

I got this tattoo on my ribs in white ink in the font American Typewriter.
This was my first tattoo and probably the only quote i will ever have on my body. It’s a much more eloquent reminder that shit happens and life goes on and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it besides keep on living.

This belongs to Taylor from New York.

For my eighteenth birthday.

This was posted as a part of “So it Goes” Saturdays. The phrase “so it goes” appears in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five 106 times. Can you help me collect 106 “so it goes” tattoos? 92 down, 14 to go.