the word made flesh: literary tattoos

I collect sentences. When reading books I underline the bits that make me say Yes! The lines in which every word is so perfect, in its perfect place. The ones that you'd never be able to write yourself because your brain wouldn't put it together like that— but that work.

I'm also a total punctuation nerd. I love semicolons and em dashes the best in descriptions, and ellipses in dialogue. They can be used so beautifully to portray pauses and silence; often the most important part of a conversation.

So looking at other people's literary tattoos fascinates me! What quotes, sentences, lyrics and words from books & poems have affected people so profoundly that they want them etched on their bodies permanently, often in visible places? When every single letter and piece of punctuation is pain on your skin, what do they choose?

They range from highbrow: 

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“A traveler! 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)

To lowbrow:

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'And so the lion fell in love with the lamb. What a stupid lamb. What a sick, masochistic lion.'

'Twilight' by Stephanie Meyer

 With everything in-between. 

Here are some of my favourites:

My friend Hana. She and her three best friends got a line each from the quote

"Sing as though no-one can hear you

Love as though you've never been hurt

Dance as though nobody's watching

Live as though heaven is on earth."

i heart punctuation

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"But you can’t give your heart to a wild thing; the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they’re strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That’s how you’ll end up if you love a wild thing. You’ll end up looking at the sky. But believe me- it’s better to look at the sky than to live there. Such an empty place; so vague. just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear…”
'Breakfast at Tiffany's' by Truman Capote

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'The Sandman' Neil Gaimon

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Hershel did not possess a family of his own. He was not such a special person. He loved to read very much, and also to write. He was a poet, and he exhibited me many of his poems. I remember many of them. They were silly, you could say, and about love. He was always in his room writing those things, and never with people. I used to tell him, What good is all that love doing on paper? I said, Let love write on you for a little. But he was so stubborn. Or perhaps he was only timid.”

 'Everything is Illuminated' by Jonathan Safran Foer.

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Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept record of their troubles. You’ll learn from them – if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.“

'Catcher in the Rye' by J. D. Salinger

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"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.”

'The Silver Chair' by C.S. Lewis

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"Greetings to you, the lucky finder of this golden ticket, from Mr. Willy Wonka! I shake you warmly by the hand! Tremendous things are in store for you! Many wonderful surprises await you. For now, I do invite you to come to my factory and be my guest for one whole day — you and all others who are lucky enough to find my Golden Tickets. I, Willy Wonka, will conduct you around the factory myself, showing you everything that there is to see, and afterwards, when it is time to leave, you will be escorted home by a procession of large trucks. These trucks, I can promise you, will be loaded with enough delicious eatables to last you and your entire household for many years. If, at any time thereafter, you should run out of supplies, you have only to come back to the factory and show this golden ticket, and I shall be happy to refill your cupboard with whatever you want. In this way, you will be able to keep yourself supplied with tasty morsels for allyour life. But this is by no means the most exciting thing that will happen on the day of your visit. I am preparing other surprises that are even more marvelous and more fantastic for you and for all my beloved Golden Ticket holders — mystic and marvelous surprises that will entrance, delight, intrigue, astonish, and perplex you beyond measure. In your wildest dreams you could not imagine that such things could happen to you! Just wait and see!"

'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' by Roald Dahl

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'Slaughterhouse-5' by Kurt Vonnegut

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These two are from the same passage in 'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac

“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!’”

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“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

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Sam tapped her hand on the steering wheel. Patrick held his hand outside the car and made air waves. And I just sat between them. After the song finished, I said something.

“I feel infinite.”

And Sam and Patrick looked at me like I said the greatest thing they ever heard. Because the song was that great and because we all really paid attention to it. Five minutes of a lifetime were truly spent, and we felt young in a good way.”

'The Perks of being a Wallflower' by Stephen Chbosky

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“…I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.

From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out.

I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath

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"I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am I am I am."

'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath

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I love Where the Wild Things Are. 

I've always thought if I have a little boy I'll call him Max,

even if that means him being naughty.