I represent the sins
This is Haley's tattoo.
The tattoo is an Oscar Wilde quote from The Picture of Dorian Gray
: "I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit."
Quite honestly I hate Oscar Wilde but the quote represents my personality perfectly. Saying and doing everything that everyone else is scared of. It was done by Greg Larimer in Pittsburgh, PA and the lettering is all hand done, no font.
Hitchhiker
This is Katie's tattoo.
This is my tattoo from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams. It is the first line of the first book.
The line breaks are the way they are because I wanted it to visually match the first edition UK printing of the paperback. So I tweeted at author Neil Gaiman, requesting that he retweet my request for a picture of the correct page from that edition. He DID! And I got LOTS of responses! One man sent me an image of the relevant page (and the copyright page, to confirm it was the correct edition), so I was able to exactly match the line breaks of the first line of the first page. Although the font is not the same (the first page is in italics), the font is Baskerville, which is the same font as the rest of the book.
I'm proud as hell of my tattoo! HHGTTG is the most important work of literature to me, and Neil effing Gaiman helped me acquire it! (you also get a shot of my fluffy dog there in the back.) Thanks!
that flighty temptress
Happy New Year.
This is Robert's tattoo.
I grew up with the Harry Potter series. I was around 9 when I read the first book, 10 when the movie came out, and you can imagine my dismay at not receiving my own letter. Dumbledore says this at the end of chapter 3 in Half-Blood Prince. This quote always stuck with me. It became a kind of mantra. For isn't adventure a flighty temptress? She beckons but she will not come to you, you must go to her. This tattoo is a constant reminder to me that I cannot simply wait around and hope something wonderful or exciting will happen, I have to make these things happen for myself. I need to pursue that flighty temptress.
The font is Lumos, a kind of variation on the font used for chapter names in the books.
Dumbledore then waved his wand again, and the front door opened onto cool, misty darkness.
"And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure."
- J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The journey doesn’t end here.
This is Gabriella's tattoo.
"End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path... One that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass... And then you see it. White shores... and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."
- Gandalf, The Return of the King
nothing more
This belongs to Hallgrímur from Iceland.
The concept of an afterlife has always struck me as wishful thinking that dumbs down the astonishing thing that life really is. This quote by Ayaan Hirsi Ali greatly summarises my feelings on the subject and serves to remind me that we are the authors of our own meaning and purpose. This is the one chance we've got, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
(The font is GeosansLight.)
"The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more, but I want nothing more."
- Excerpt from How (and Why) I Became an Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, in Christopher Hitchens' book The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
el dinosaurio
This belongs to Liz.
I stumbled across these words in an undergrad course and fell in love with the world's shortest story, "El dinosaurio." Now that I teach Spanish in inner city Philadelphia, the words mean even more. We each experience the process of awakening in a different way, and inevitably during those moments, there is a "dinosaur" that remains. That "dinosaur" can be, and has been, many different things, good and bad.
The font is Monotype Corsiva, altered a bit by the artist, Chris Adamek.
"Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí."
("When [s]he awoke, the dinosaur was still there.")
- "El dinosaurio" by Augusto Monterroso, published in his Obras completas (y otros cuentos)
So it goes #42, 43, 44
This is Geri's.
I got it as a reminder to not get too worked up about daily life. For the most part things are fine and sometimes things aren't but thats life. So it goes. I also love that only some people will get it and I don't bother explaining to those who don't.
This is Noll's.
I believe that while we should try to experience fully and indulge in every moment of life, that many things are fundamentally beyond our control, that shit happens, and there is nothing we can do about it. I decided to get two totally unrelated literary tattoos, which, together, sum up this duality - passion for holding on to the things you never want to let go because, for at least one moment, they were all that mattered, and then the whimsical dismissal of their finitude as something beyond your control, which is in no way something to be mourned.
"So it goes" obviously represents the latter. I have yet to find its partner, but I'm sure that I will.
This is Jenn's.
"So it goes" is a quote that helps me to remember all the hard times I've gone through and overcome. It reminds me when I'm struggling that life indeed does go on. It also reminds me that death is most definitely inevitable, but those passed are certainly not gone and continue to live on through memories. The snowflake is for my dog, Snowflake, who was my best friend for 15 years of my life who passed away. So it goes.
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? 44 down, 62 to go.
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