Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos
The original literary tattoo blog! Over 600 tattoos from books, poetry, music, and other sources.
This tattoo belongs to Marillia from Brazil.
It’s a quote from “Le Petit Prince“.
It says, in french: “Nobody is perfect”, sighed the fox.I had the tattoo done on my right wrist, facing me, so when I’m dealing with people that frustrate me and make me feel depressed I can just look at my tattoo and let its meaning sink in.
This belongs to Laina.
It translates to the saying “You never know”.
“On ne sait jamais.”
– Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
This is Kelsey’s tattoo.
I got this tattoo in memory of my grandma, who will always be my star….
“In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night . . . You–only you–will have stars that can laugh!”
– The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
This belongs to Zee Molica.
I’ve always loved this book, especially this sentence. And since I think it’s something we should always live by, I decided to carry it with me.
This belongs to Kathy Ly.
I was born and raised in France, and it was my dad’s favorite book, which he passed on to me as a kid. This tattoo has much sentimental value to me.
This belongs to Richelle.
This one belongs to Nora.
My favorite children’s book!
This belongs to Chelsea from New York.
Mine is from the Spanish translation of the text – “El principito“- which I came across in a high school Spanish class.
These belong to a couple only identified as “B612”.
We had originally wanted to get the entire thing split between us, but the tattoo artist had some misgivings about the amount of text in regards to the placement of the art. We had these done for our anniversary. Unlike rings they can’t be misplaced. They are very special to me.
“Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.“
English translation: “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.”
– Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Several tattoos of the Prince himself.
This one belongs to Sonya Green.
This is Jennifer’s.
This is Bethany’s.
I got it on my 18th birthday as a present to myself, as well as a constant reminder to never let go of “child-like wonder”.
This one belongs to Rachel S.
This one belongs to Vanessa.
Finally, this one belongs to Iran.
Source: The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
This is Bailey‘s Le Petit Prince tattoo.
It comes from the end of the book, when the prince has left and all the pilot has to look at is the star. In English:
“Here, then, is a great mystery. For you who also love the little prince, and for me, nothing in the universe can be the same if somewhere, we do not know where, a sheep that we never saw has–yes or no?–eaten a rose . . .
“Look up at the sky. Ask yourselves: is it yes or no? Has the sheep eaten the flower? And you will see how everything changes . . .
“And no grown-up will ever understand that this is a matter of so much importance!”
I got it to remind myself – and anyone who sees it, and asks me about it – to always look deeper.
This is Katy’s tattoo.
This is from Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince“. It means, “I believe he made his escape by taking an advantage of a migration of wild birds” – definitely sounds better in French.