We’re all mad here.
This belongs to Niall J in Ireland.
The design was taken from the original illustration in the book. This tattoo means the world to me. it's a culmination of the last 10 years of my life. Going through so much and coming out the other end; battered, bruised but alive. I'm finally able to live in my own skin and be creative in the way that I want to. express weirdness, flaunt your controlled insanity. that's what I think anyway :)
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the cat: "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
I exist as I am
This is Geneva's tattoo.
The story behind it is that I've suffered for a long time with body image issues and accepting myself as I am. Reading Whitman's poetry, especially "Song of Myself", and going back to graduate school have really made me rethink my life, and I got this tattoo as a celebration of myself and my new found confidence. Dandelions symbolic for faithfulness and happiness, so I thought one would be especially appropriate. I also like the transience of dandelions, with their seeds that can seemingly float along the breeze, wherever the wind wills them to go. They're also a common flower, much like Whitmans "leaves of grass", and I've always thought that sometimes the common and the ordinary should be just as celebrated and thought of as beautiful as the extraordinary. Roses are beautiful, but dandelions are more so in a way, because they're not as valued.
This belongs to Winnter.
I love it because Walt Whitman is a favorite poet of mine. The tattoo really represents the poet in me, and in all of us. It also truly celebrates the human being as being beautiful, and giving us the freedom to really celebrate that. My flesh is a poem, as is anyone else's who loves themselves.
This belongs to Lukas.
So, the reason I decided to get this tattoo when I turned 18 goes pretty far back. When I was about 4 or 5 my parents gave me this lamp for my bedroom, it was yellow with purple writing, and it had a whole mess of quotes from different authors, including Hemingway, Frost, and Kerouac. As the years went by, pieces of the quotes chipped off whenever we moved, but the one quote that always remained intact and always stood out in my mind when I thought of my childhood and the lamp was this one. So when I turned 18, I had already been thinking about what I wanted my tattoo to be, and I decided that this one wouldn't only serve as a reminder of my childhood, but also as a guiding point for the rest of my life.
I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
- Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
Life’s as kind as you let it be.
This is Calvin's tattoo.
I'm a huge Bukowski fan and this quote always comes back to me when dealing with tough times.
“Life's as kind as you let it be.”
― Charles Bukowski, Hot Water Music
So it goes #30, 31, 32
This is Paul Langley's.
This is done in my own handwriting. It is more personal than if it was written in a font like my other tattoo because it is a part of me. It reminds me that when things are going wrong that life goes on, there is nothing that end it until I die. Even if I do die; So it goes.
This is Graham's.
Vonnegut's novels were an enormous influence on my decision to become a writer.
This belongs to Russell, a university lecturer.
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? 32 down, 74 to go.
It’s history. It’s poetry.
This is Karla Bassi's tattoo.
"Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept record of their troubles. You’ll learn from them – if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry."
- J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Stay Gold
This is Emma's tattoo.
This is Julia's.
For me it's a reminder to stay true to myself, to not get too jaded, and to cherish innocence and remember that it can live inside us simultaneously with wisdom.
This belongs to Season R. Gomez.
Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
- Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay"
“Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.”
― S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders
stuff your eyes with wonder
This is Kate's tattoo.
Never before reading this book did any quote jump at me and make me feel so inspired.
"Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that, shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass."
- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Follow Contrariwise
