Pictures can be worth a thousand words but some people want a more straightforward approach when it comes to expressing how they feel. The simplicity of a sentence could just be perfect for someone to get tattooed.
One of the many people who had submitted me tattoos is Allison, from a literary tattoo community from livejournal.com. This particular tattoo piece is from the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, a fantasy novel about two children who travel through different universes. The movie, The Golden Compass, was based off the trilogy.
This quote comes from the final novel, The Amber Spyglass
In her own words, Allison says:
"Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well. Just tell them stories. ...
All that was left was the sweetness of that feeling, and the injunction to tell them stories.
The feathers represent the harpies guarding the underworld and whose task it is to guide the ghosts back out into the world. It's a reminder to myself to live life so that when I die, I have stories to tell."
Emily, a full time art student sent me her tattoo, a quote from the book, Into the Wild, a nonfiction book about a man's two year journey in Alaska, after he gave up all his possessions and donated all of his money to charities.
In her own words :"As for the tattoo on my leg, it's a quote from the book Into the Wild, taken from a letter that Chris McCandless wrote. I chose this, because I think of him as a very influential young man, who did what made him happy, without fear. He wanted to see the country, and he did so. I also chose it because I absolutely adored the book, as well as the movie, and I appreciated the fact that the quote can go for any new experience, or any new adventure, which is what was going on in my life when I got this tattoo. (I had started going to college in a new state, after never being away from home for very long.)"
Betty, from Dayton Ohio, is currently in Business school in NYC. She currently has 7 tattoos, and has no plans for more.
The Ellipisis, the three dots on her left wrist. The tattoo was done by Xing Haisong at John Long Tattoo in Shanghai. In her own words: "I got the tattoo on a whim; my friends and I were joking about our favorite punctuation marks and I said I would get an ellipsis tattoo. Being in Shanghai was my first time abroad by myself, and on an impulse, I decided to really get the tattoo as a mark of freedom. Even though it was a spur of the moment decision, I don't regret it at all. A lot of people think the dots stand for past, present, and future, and I don't bother correcting them; that's another way I see the tattoo."On her right forearm, it says "What touches you (keep what you kill) is what you touch"
In her own words: "This tattoo and all of my following tattoos were done by Eddie Carerro at Inkstop in NYC. The lines without the parentheses is from one of my favorite poems, Margaret Atwood's "Nothing." The middle line is from The Chronicles of Riddick movie and is the last line Vin Diesel says in the movie. I mashed together the two quotes because I think they really work well together. To me, it means responsibility. "What touches you is what you touch" reminds me of all the people in my life that I've met and how important they are to me, and how they've changed my life and how I've changed theirs. "Keep what you kill" reminds me to always take responsibility for my own actions."
The third tattoo, she got was an quote from the Italian movie ,Life is Beautiful.The movie is about an Italian Jewish man who must use his imagination to keep his family together while they are in a Nazi concentration camp. La vita e bella is the Italian translation and is on her left forearm, curving down. The tattoo itself is self explanatory and is a current reminder of how lucky she is.
The quote reads: "something in me aches to be delicate, it weeps while the rest of me cackles."This tattoo was done for a tattoo project.(http://aemrrcollaborations.blogspot.com/)
In her own words: "This quote perfectly sums up who I am as a person. I'm jaded, yet sometimes I wish I weren't. There is no judgment behind this quote, I don't wish to change, this is simply who I am. "
Words can mean the world to someone, whether it was read, heard, or our own. When you really read something, when you read between the lines, take in the context, and look at the emotions that were felt when it was created, you cannot describe how powerful a few simple words can be. So powerful that it could gives us hope, guide us through dark times, and inspire ourselves as well as others.
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