This is Tasia. She explains her tattoo:
My name is Tasia Celeste, and my tattoo is a study of the unreliability of language in love relationships in literature. The tattoo is 1196 words so far, beginning at my index finger, wrapping around my arm, my entire body, and down my leg to my foot. The heart of it is a quote from Faulkner's novel, As I Lay Dying
, about the uselessness of the word love. Other passages include the entire first chapter of Lolita
, Billy Collins's great poem "Aristotle," a quote from Antonya Nelson's story "Telluride," part of James Salter's novel Light Years
, a full Sharon Olds poem "I Go Back to May 1937" and an excerpt from another... some of "The Merchant of Venice
," part of Charles Baxter's story, "Saul and Patsy
Are Getting Comfortable in Michigan," part of Amy Bloom's "Love Is Not a Pie," and some Rilke. Since it's all connected, I'll send a couple photos of different parts of it. Sean Pipkin @ Captain Jack's Tattoo in Portland did the work, and the photos are by Laura Domela.
