This is my sixth tattoo, third literary. I was born with heart defect and had open heart surgery at a young age, leaving me with a 10-inch scar on my chest and a 6-inch one on my leg. I have recurring heart issues today, at the age of 24, and have lost several family members to heart disease, most recently my father, who was not even 60. This is from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar: “I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my hear: I am. I am. I am.” My heart says, “I am” with every beat.
“September 18” by Douglas Lochhead, from High Marsh Road.
Done by Heather Myles at Inksmith Tattoos in Guelph, Ontario.
“boxcars boxcars boxcars,” from “Howl,” by Allen Ginsberg.
‘Don’t let yourself feel worthless; often through life you will really be at your worst when you seem to think best of yourself; and don’t worry about losing your ‘personality,’ as you persist in calling it; at fifteen you had the radiance of early morning, at twenty you will begin to have the melancholy brilliance of the moon, and when you are my age you will give out, as I do, the genial golden warmthy of 4pm.’
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This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald. (via ekatherine)
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“Mischief Managed”, the words to conceal the Marauder’s Map in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This little saying held so much power for me when I first read it. It’s a satisfying way of ending a job well done.
It’s my goal at the end of each day to make sure that I can say these words with pride.
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
My fourth tattoo is le renard from Antoine de St-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince. The book is one of my favorites and established my love of philosophy (in which I have one and am pursuing another degree) at a young age. Le renard teaches the Prince the most important lessons of his entire journey - and I always want to remember them in my own journey. Done by Rodrigo at North Star Tattoo in Manhattan.
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
trust your heart if the seas catch fire
(and live by love though the stars walk backward)
- e e cummings
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon; Still Life with Woodpecker - Tom Robbins; Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte; J.D. Salinger’s signature.
Because I’m always where I need to be.
Because everything happens for a reason.
