Submitted by Neal:
You’ll have to click on this one for the full size.
It’s a pull from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
. The number 42 is obvious for anyone who has read the book as being the answer to life, the universe and everything. The “don’t panic” on either side of the number 42 is also from the book, wherein Douglas Adam’s claims on the front of the actual Hitchhikers Guide (the one in the book not the book itself) it reads “Don’t Panic” in very friendly letters.
Artwork from Le Petit Prince
Kathryn submitted this on behalf of her friend, who says:
The tattoo artist said that this is one of the weirdest tattoos he’s ever done and goes against everything he’s learned about tattoos–no solid lines, no strong blocks of color. But I think it’s absolutely perfect (albeit still a bit swollen in this picture), after two hundred dollars and two hours in the chair. “People where you live,” the little prince said, “grow five thousand roses in one garden… yet they don’t find what they’re looking for…” “They don’t find it,” I answered. “And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single rose, or a little water…” “Of course,” I answered. And the little prince added, “But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.”
Submitted by Kurt:
Lee’s hand shook as he filled the delicate cups. He drank his down in one gulp. “Don’t you see?” he cried. “The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—’Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’ Don’t you see?”
- Excerpt from East of Eden by John Steinbeck
From The Shape of Things to Come
This tattoo was inspired by the H.G. Wells novel “The Shape of Things To Come” shortened to “Things to Come”, as a form of self confirmation. In a way, it was kind of my way of stating that this is who I am and who I plan on being.
Submitted by Bonnie:
Orwell and his writings came to me at a pivotal point in my life. When I read Nineteen Eighty-Four, it changed my life and the way I looked at the world. I got this tattoo to pay homage to Orwell and to show my rebellion against any government that manipulates their citizens into thinking the way the government wants them to. Many people see the tattoo and think I believe the words of it, but actually it is a reminder to myself to think before accepting as truth whatever someone tells me.
“War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.”
- From 1984
Tattoo from The BFG
Submitted by Maren:
The illustration is by Quentin Blake. It’s on the back of my right arm.
Roald Dahl was and still is my favorite author and the Big Friendly Giant is my favorite
literary character. He steals nightmares and gives children good dreams… it’s just a
cute and lovely story.
Submitted by hannah, who says:
My mom read me the first 4 books before she passed away & Harry Potter was always our thing. Then when the 5th book came out, I didn’t want to read it because I had always associated it with my mom and she wasn’t there to share it with me. But then the 6th book came out, and I picked up the 5th one, read that and then the 6th, and there was no looking back. I remembered why I loved Harry Potter so much. When the 7th book came out, and I read the part about Dumbledore, my mom’s favorite character (and one of my own haha), leaving Harry the snitch in his will, and the message left on it, I knew that this was something special. It always kind of toyed around with it in the back of my head. So then I went for it, and got it, and I love it. It reminds me of my mom, and Harry Potter, and the things she didn’t get to read, but I know she would have loved.
“The Snitch I caught in my first ever Quidditch march?” said Harry. “Don’t you remember?”
Hermione looked bemused. Ron, however, gasped, pointing frantically from Harry to the Snitch and back again until he found his voice.
“THat was the one you nearly swallowed!”
“Exactly,” said Harry, and with his heart beating fast, he pressed his mouth to the Snitch.
It did not open. Frustration and bitter disappointment welled up inside him: He lowered the golden sphere, but then Hermione cried out.
“Writing! There’s writing on it, quick, look!”
He nearly dropped the Snitch in surprise and excitement, Hermione was quite right. Engraved upon the smooth golden surface, where seconds before there had been nothing, were five words written in the thin, slanting handwriting that Harry recognized as Dumbledore’s:
I open at the close.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Submitted by Tara:
The tattoo is on my hip.
It is the Golden Apple from the Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea and/or the Principia Discordia by Malaclypse the Younger.
This tattoo was submitted by SpiffySilpion, and is “the word ‘strength‘ spelled out in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Elvish
Submitted by SpiffySilpion:
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.”
- To Kill A Mockingbird
Submitted by Pistol:
This quote is from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged
People constantly ask me what it means, who he is. It is difficult to articulate all of Ayn Rand’s beliefs and philosophies. After all, there is a 1200 page book based solely on the answer to this question. In short, it is a cry of desperation and a beacon of hope in the dark. I just pray some day an attractive man comes up to me and, after reading it, tells me what an amazing novel it was so we can get married and live happily ever after. It’s ok to dream isnt it?
Brigette says:
I have a tattoo very closely based on the original rocking-horse fly illustration from Through the Looking Glass (1871), the sequel to Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. John Tenniel was the illustrator; these prints were made with woodblocks.
Photo from her tattoo artist’s portfolio:
“Well, there’s the Horse-fly,” Alice began, counting off the names on her fingers.
“All right,” said the Gnat: “half way up that bush, you’ll see a Rocking-horse-fly, if you look. It’s made entirely of wood, and gets about by swinging itself from branch to branch.”
“What does it live on?” Alice asked, with great curiosity.
“Sap and sawdust,” said the Gnat. “Go on with the list.”
Alice looked up at the Rocking-horse-fly with great interest, and made up her mind that it must have been just repainted, it looked so bright and sticky; and then she went on.
- Excerpt from Through the Looking-Glass
This Harriet the Spy
It’s supposed to be a permanent reminder not to leave my notebooks around where other people will read them.
This tattoo is the owner’s full name in Elvish.
- Inspired by The Lord of the Rings
Submitted by Nogoldformarfa:
He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath—”The horror! The horror!”
- From Heart of Darkness
“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. ”
- from Le Petit Prince
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
