"Are you seeking to know what is wrong with the world? All the disasters that have wrecked your world, came from your leaders’ attempt to evade the fact that A is A. All the secret evil you dread to face within you and all the pain you have ever endured, came from your own attempt to evade the fact that A is A. The purpose of those who taught you to evade it, was to make you forget that Man is Man."

- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Related posts:

1. Fight Club
2. Tattoos for the Blind

The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.

- James Joyce, Ulysses, Episide 17 - Ithaca.

This is Brett's Little Prince half sleeve.

I just love the book and always wanted to do a half sleeve.  I tried to incorporate as much of the story as possible.

It's my first and it is a reference to Terry Pratchett who mentioned "multiple exclamation marks" in some of his Discworld novels. I'm a huge fan and wanted something unobvious which I had drawn myself.

"Multiple exclamation marks,' he went on, shaking his head, 'are a sure sign of a diseased mind." - Eric

"Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind." - Reaper Man

"And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head." - Maskerade

I spent hours with printouts of Ginsberg's handwriting to try and re-create it as best I can, to come up with this, my most memorable refrain from HOWL.

I'm with you in Rockland
where you laugh at this invisible humor
I'm with you in Rockland
where we are great writers on the same dreadful typewriter
I'm with you in Rockland
where your condition has become serious and is reported on the radio
I'm with you in Rockland
where the faculties of the skull no longer admit the worms of the senses

- Excerpt from Allen Ginsberg’s Howl (full text)

Related posts:

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2. Allen Ginsberg
3. Allen Ginsberg

This belongs to Hasdeu:

This belongs to Oliver:

The novel as a whole really connected with me and the quote, for me, is at the core of the novels meaning. I had it done on the inside of my bicep, so it would be quite personal and not totally visible to all, but this hasn't stopped the curious passersbys from asking about it, yet to meet someone who has recognised it straight off however.

And this belongs to Nic:

“the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”

- Jack Kerouac

This is Megan's tattoo from the graphic novel Mother Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier.

"Will you write?"

This is Jennifer's tattoo:

The tattoo says "Aime comme tu l'entends," which is the French translation of "Love as thou Wilt" from Jacqueline Carey's Kushieline Series, the first book being Kushiel's Dart.

It means that love, in any form is scared.

This tattoo belongs to Louis.

Kurt Vonnegut is one of my all time favorite authors and I absolutely love Slaughterhouse Five. This phrase has always stuck out to me and I love how simply it sums up even the most tragic events. Life happened and there is no way to avoid it…so it goes.

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? 22 down, 84 to go.

She said life's too short to worry
Life's too long to wait
Too short not to love everybody
Life's too long to hate

- Todd Snider, Ballad of the Devil's Backbone Tavern

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you."

- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The first is Cori:

The second is Samantha, whose tattoo is done in "James Potter's (prongs) handwriting":

Finally, Chloe, who explains:

Under regular light, it looks like a blank scroll (almost) with the three stars that appear on every page in each book. But under a black light, the quote lights up: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." (I couldn't get the best picture of it or angle with my scorpion finder light, but you get the idea.)

This is the password to the Marauder's Map, first appearing in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

"Messrs. Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP"
—The Marauder's Map

This tattoo belongs to Patricia Berdún:

It says "hwæt" and it's the first word from Beowulf.
This was my first tattoo. I got it when I finish my degree in English Studies. This was the first book we had to read and I loved it.
We read it in modern English, of course, but I love Anglo-Saxon and I wrote it like that for my tattoo.

I picked out this quote because I feel like life should be like this line. Not everything needs to be in such a rush, not everything needs to be instant, and some things should be left for discovery.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window panes; 25
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

- Excerpt from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot.  Read the whole poem here.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Throughout the story, the mockingbird is used to symbolize innocence, and the loss thereof. I got this tattoo to commemorate my own loss of innocence, and the utmost importance of protecting my young son's innocence. As a single mother with an abusive ex-husband, it is so important to me to use my healing experience to support and protect other abused women. This tattoo helps me remember that it's healthy to forgive, but it's never ok to forget, lest old mistakes be repeated.

“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.

“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

This is Nikki's tattoo.  It reads "Audentes Fortuna Iuvat" ("Fortune Favors the Brave") and comes from Book X, line 284 of The Aeneid by Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil).

This photo is from my recent wedding. I got the tattoo several years ago after leaving a bad relationship that I should have left long before I finally got up the nerve to get out. I decided that I would follow my instincts from then on and the tattoo reminds me to make bold choices. Life's been pretty awesome ever since. (Plus, I've always loved Latin.)

My tattoo is from the poem Elm by Sylvia Plath. The line reads "I do not fear it: I have been there." I got this tattoo to symbolize my struggles with Bipolar Disorder and how I identify with Sylvia Plath through her literature. She is one of my greatest literary influences and I take great inspiration from the successes she had despite her own struggle with mental illness. For me, this tattoo represents that I've been to the lowest of the lows and the highest of the highs, and I'm not afraid, because I survived before and I will survive again.

I also have a tattoo on my right forearm, it is a passage from Kurt Cobain's suicide note. He also was a sufferer from Bipolar Disorder. The quote reads, "And so remember, it's better to burn out than to fade away." He references the Neil Young song. I have always been a huge Kurt Cobain fan, but he also committed suicide like Sylvia Plath, and that is not my intended path. For me, this tattoo is a remember that I DON'T believe this statement. I tattooed it on my forearm not because I believe him but because I don't. It is always better to stay strong and keep going.

I have always had an affinity for T.S. Eliot, and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is simultaneously poignant and pretentious; what's not to love? I realized every job I've had, from telemarketing for Gevalia, working third shift in a diner, and for the last few years, serving coffee as a barista at Starbucks, has involved coffee. I drink it, I serve it, I live it. I truly have measured out my life with coffee spoons. My name's Lena, and after a useless English Lit. degree, a graduate degree, I'm still working at Starbucks; but I'm okay with that. Today, feeling slightly Prufrockian, I thought I'd make it a permanent statement.

For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

- T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

This is Erik's Orwell-inspired tattoo.  He says it is based on this quote from 1984:

“Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed—no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.”

- George Orwell, 1984