Annabel Lee

This tattoo belongs to Valentina Tagliabue, “Valen“, from Milan (Italy).

I have a poem tattooed on my full back, with a signature at the end. Is “Annabel Lee“, a very well-known poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

Why did I want the entire poem on me? Because my first love in this life is Poetry; because when I met the brilliant works of Poe – his novels but especially his poems – they burned my soul so deeply that I wanted a sign of this feeling forever engraved also on my body. The whole text, because you never should break a poem in half or more: all, or nothing.

I am a writer, a novelist (was my passion and is becoming my main activity), but I mostly consider myself a poet. When I came to know of Poe’s works and life, I found in him all that I am: tenacity, lack of other’s understanding, inspiration intended as a gift, a turbulent and difficult life however fully realized in Art. Is hard to explain to me, it is easier to see all of this in these signs that I care on the back.

I chose Annabel Lee because is the last poem he wrote before his death – and he never saw it published – and to me it is like “pick up a baton”. For this I have engraved it on the back: my shoulders are guarded by the beauty of this poem; but all of the sadness, difficulty and pain of his creator belong to the past. Maybe, they even can be a guide for the future. I chose this poem also for the music of verses and for this desperate love that “neither the angels…nor the demons…” can ever break. Once I loved a man exactly in this way, and I only pray to meet him again…some day.

So this poem was perfect for me, and now is a part of my skin, after being a part of my spirit.

The tattoo took me about eighteen hours, divided into three days plus one more afternoon to redo some letters. The font is called “Litos Script”.

The black and white picture is from Tony of Atomic Garden-Milan, my tattoo artist, whom I sincerely thank for this great work.