this too shall pass by SavagetheLion Blake Fisher of Elk River, MN
I have a half sleeve of the Great Gatsby on my left arm. Unfortunately, this is only one photo of the back, but I have photos of the whole thing but can only upload one!
The front has flappers dancing, Gatsby’s mansion and Daisy’s eyes from the front cover. On the front you can see Gatsby and Daisy, more flappers, a 1920’s car and red and blue roses (red symbolizing Gatsby’s everlasting love for Daisy and blue symbolizing Gatsby’s un-attainability of Daisy.)
There are song lyrics from one of my favorite bands Brand New that says ‘Need you like water in my Lungs,’ which ties into Gatsby’s death in the pool.
This took over 50 hours of work from Rob Green at Park City Tattoo in Black Rock, Connecticut.
For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.
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| — | Ernest Hemingway, Nobel speech |
“So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!”
J.M. Barrie and Peter Pan mean more than words to me. Done by Devin at Lost Time Tattoos in Charleston, WV.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep
-Excerpt from Robert Frost’s Walking By Woods on a Snowing Evening
Read the poem during a rough time and it just sort of spoke to me. I thought getting the verse on my feet was fitting, and it helps get me through things :)
All those years on the psychiatrist’s couch and suddenly the couch is moving. Good God, she is on that couch when the big one hits. Maidy didn’t tell you, but you know what her doctor said? She sprang from the couch and said, “My God, was that an earthquake?” The doctor said this: “Did it feel like an earthquake to you?
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| — | Amy Hempel, Reasons to Live |
I just heard about the recent death of Maurice Sendak, who was and is a large influence in my life. I thought I’d share my tattoo I got of his work and Shel Silverstein’s.
“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
As a writer one doesn’t belong anywhere. Fiction writers, I think, are even more outside the pale, necessarily on the edge of society. Because society and people are our meat, one really doesn’t belong in the midst of society. The great challenge in writing is always to find the universal in the local, the parochial. And to do that, one needs distance.
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| — | William Trevor |
“One of God’s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die. ”
-Hunter S. Thompson.
The semicolon is my favorite punctuation mark, and I put it near my wrist, where I’ll always see it when I’m writing.
![From The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot, my favorite poem. A reminder to myself to live my life to the fullest, so I don’t end up with regret for the things I was too scared to try.
And indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair— [They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin— [They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”] Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m402pwYTLT1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg)
From The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot, my favorite poem. A reminder to myself to live my life to the fullest, so I don’t end up with regret for the things I was too scared to try.
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—
[They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”]
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
[They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”]
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
