I got the tattoo when I was going through a series of events I ended up losing a large number of those who were close to me. I got to a point where I was absolutely miserable and couldn’t find a good reason to wake up in the morning. I work in dorms and during my hard times some of my residents who I’d helped quite a bit throughout the year saw through my “I’m fine”’s and would come to me and would talk to me about all the different ways I’d helped them. In the midst of everything piling up it just reminded me that despite whatever BS I’ve gone through if I’m still able to wake up in the morning and help make someone else’s life better then my own will always have meaning. (The little flurries you see around the text are from a dandelion that’s on my back.)

“We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.”

- Che Guevara

Submitted by Pistol:

This quote is from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. After reading this book my mind seemed to be opened to a world I had been searching for but was incapable of finding myself. A place where people are respected for their virtues, not for their vices. Where ability is placed above need.

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?

Shel Silverstein was a huge part of my childhood. I was in love with his poems and his writing has greatly influenced my own. I loved this poem because it reminds me that there is always more to life than what you know . I also actually typed this on my grandmothers ancient typewriter. Also…it’s just pretty effin’ rad.

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

- Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Its an old maori proverb meaning “turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you”.
Need I say more.

“In women’s speech, as in their writing, that element which never stops resonating, which, once we’ve been permeated by it, profoundly and imperceptibly touched but it, retains the power of moving us—that element is the song: the first music from the first voice of love which is alive in every woman. Why this privileged relationship with the voice? Because no woman stockpiles as many defenses for countering the drives as does a man. You don’t build walls around yourself, you don’t forego pleasure as “wisely” as he. Even if phallic mystification has generally contaminated good relationships, a woman is never far from “mother” (I mean outside her role functions: the “mother as noname and as source of goods). There is always within her at least a little of that good mother’s milk. She writes in white ink.”

- Hélène Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa”

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 by Lewis Carroll

More photos:

Original illustration:

“My life is my message.”

- Gandhi

Oh please
Look please lover lay down
Oh please lover lay down
And you weep
Lover lay down
Cause it’s over
Lover lay down
Say love, say love, say love, say love, say love
Could I love you
Could you love me
Darling it’s
All the same
‘Til we dance away
Chasing me all around
Leading me all around
Leading me all around in circles
Leading me all around in circles
Say…

- Excerpt from Dave Matthews Band’s Lover Lay Down

ellipsis \i-ˈlip-səs, e-\
n.
A mark or series of marks ( . . . or * * * , for example) used in writing or printing to indicate an omission, especially of letters or words.

From The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

This tattoo was submitted by Kay.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

- From ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ by Dylan Thomas

This tattoo was submitted by dylan Snow, who says:

Years ago when I showed this tattoo to my grandmother (who once kicked a man out of her house for having an earring) she told me she approved. It was her grandmother’s favorite poem and favorite poet.

This Harriet the Spy tattoo was submitted by Courtney B, a Young Adult Librarian.  She says:

It’s supposed to be a permanent reminder not to leave my notebooks around where other people will read them.

Stumble don’t rumble
‘Cause you might get killed
Sip but don’t tip
‘Cause your beer you might spill
Think what you feel
‘Cause your feelings don’t think
Here at the office,
We know just one drink

- Chorus of “Office” by Pepper

“Those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter.”

- Bernard Baruch, in response to disputed seating arrangements.  (This quotation is often misattributed to Dr. Seuss.)

“So it goes.”

- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

The drawing underneath is a golden spiral.

(source)

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

(source)

This tattoo is the owner’s full name in Elvish.

- Inspired by The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

(source)

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 by Joseph Conrad

I’m with you in Rockland
where you laugh at this invisible humor
I’m with you in Rockland
where we are great writers on the same dreadful typewriter
I’m with you in Rockland
where your condition has become serious and is reported on the radio
I’m with you in Rockland
where the faculties of the skull no longer admit the worms of the senses

- Excerpt from Allen Ginsberg’s Howl (full text)