This is Will’s tattoo:

This was my first tattoo, though I’ve been thinking about it for … well, a long time. The phrase comes from Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” series, from Delirium’s sundial and means “time is broken.” For me, it was always a play on having no sense of time, but realizing that memories are persistent beyond any real sense of time. I can remember what happened ten years ago better than I can what I did for lunch yesterday. I think most people are like that. Having it just above where most people wear a watch is just part of the joke.

(23 votes, average: 4.09 out of 5)

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“And indeed there will be time
To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and, ‘Do I dare?’
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—
[They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!']
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
[They will say: 'But how his arms and legs are thin!']
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”

This is Callie’s tattoo:

This is a question asked by a man in the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot (my favorite poet).  In the poem, he tries over and over to muster up the courage to pursue his dreams, but his fears and doubts always stop him.  This is my personal reminder everyday, a way to constantly ask myself, “Am I brave enough to make a difference in the world?”  I want to be able to answer, “Yes.”

(52 votes, average: 4.19 out of 5)

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“One word, Ma’am,” he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. “One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.”

- From The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.

This is Xin’s tattoo:

The line is from C.S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair, which is the 6th book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. It is spoken by Puddleglum in defiant response to the Witch-queen as she tries to enchant and persuade the characters into believing that whatever they cannot perceive with their senses must be imaginary, and as such, that Narnia and Aslan cannot possibly exist.

As a literature student fresh out of her BA and about to begin her Masters, I do think that there is something to be said about stories being more true that real life. As an aspiring English teacher, I affirm that one must never limit oneself to an understanding of the world in purely scientific or economic terms. As a reader of books, I believe that a life utterly devoid of the rejuvenating power of imagination can only leave us so much the poorer for it. Yet as a Christian who has been called upon to defend her faith, I am constantly coming back to the fact that what I believe in is indeed considered foolishness by so many others.

I do not know if I would die for a story. But I do know that if there is indeed such a being as a God who loved us enough to die for us, then surely I can do no less in giving up everything that I have in this life to seek His face.

The ink was done by Carlos at Lotus Land Tattoo.

(64 votes, average: 4.52 out of 5)

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This is Tyler’s tattoo from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life“.

Life is real! Life is earnest
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

I got it because this poem has always spoken volumes to me and serves more or less as my maxim for living life day to day.

(42 votes, average: 3.52 out of 5)

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This is Courtney’s tattoo, which reads “Dream” in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Tengwar script.

I was raised on all of his books and they were the ones that first taught me out to dream big and dream wildly, but also to never stop dreaming those things. I think that a small part of me was always able to retain some of my childhood because of his writing. It seemed only fitting to write it on me somewhere.

(45 votes, average: 4.44 out of 5)

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This is Elizabeth’s alphabet tattoo:

This tattoo is, obviously, the alphabet. I studied literature at Bennington College and wanted a tattoo that completely encompassed my interests and passions; I couldn’t decide on any one quote, so I decided on the elements that make up all words, sentences, and paragraphs. The tattoo was done by Mike, at Bleeding Heart in Lee’s Summit, MO. He’s the greatest. The font is Georgia, and I get asked that all the time.

(83 votes, average: 4.31 out of 5)

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This is Tiffany’s tattoo:

I got the tattoo last spring, in honor of my husband, whose heart I carry in mine.

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

- e. e. cummings, i carry your heart with me

(55 votes, average: 3.44 out of 5)

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“A traveller! I love his title. A traveler is to be reverenced as such. His profession is the best symbol of our life. Going from–toward; it is the history of every one of us.”

- Henry David Thoreau, first published in The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau (1906)

This is Krissy’s tattoo:

I’ve been wanting another tattoo for a while. With my background of Boy Scouts of America, I always thought I would get the 12 points of the Scout Law on my legs. But while reading through some quotes I found this one. It jumped out at me and I drove straight to the shop. I didn’t care about the cost, I just knew that I had to have this.

Currently I work for a residential treatment facility for juveniles with duel diagnosis. It’s a tough job, but I feel like I’m making a difference in the world. I’m always telling the youth I work with that it doesn’t matter what your background is or where you’re coming from, but where you’re going and what you do to get there that matters. None of the youth know my history, they just understand that I know what I’m talking about.  But my history and background are not so different from what they are coming from. I try to show them that if you put your mind to it you can pull out of whatever negative, trauma and loss filled past into something grand and amazingly awesome! So really, it’s not where you’re going from but what you’re going toward.

(36 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)

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This is Leyna’s tattoo.

It’s from Part I of “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg.  The entire stanza reads:

who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of

beer a sweetheart a package of cigarettes a candle and fell off the bed, and continued along
the floor and down the hall and ended fainting
on the wall with a vision of ultimate cunt and

come eluding the last gyzym of consciousness,

Leyna says:

… I thought better of tattooing that much obscenity on me. “Ecstatic and insatiate” seem to capture Ginsberg’s own vision of New York City, as well as the sentiment I feel as I begin my sixth (!) year living in Manhattan or an outter burough. I’m a huge fan of the beats and love having a piece of Ginsberg’s work.

Done by Derik @ Hand of Glory in Brooklyn

(43 votes, average: 3.58 out of 5)

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Happy New Year!

I’ve decided to follow a new posting schedule, to ensure the site gets updated regularly.  From now on, I’m going to update on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and every other Saturday.   Also, I’m looking for someone who wants to moderate comments.   Send an email to jen@contrariwise.org if you’re interested.

Why don’t you join the new Facebook page?

(8 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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