Out now from Harper Perennial Get your copy at Indiebound, Powell’s Books or Amazon. Follow us on Twitter. And be our friend on facebook. Check out our new sister-blog: The Words to Every Song, tattoos inspired by music and song lyrics. About the book: The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide is a guide to the emerging subculture of literary tattoos — a collection of 100 full-color photographs of human skin indelibly adorned with quotations and images from Pynchon to Dickinson to Shakespeare to Plath. Packed with beloved lines of verse, literary portraits, and illustrations — and statements from the bearers on their tattoos’ history and the personal significance of the chosen literary work — The Word Made Flesh is part photo collection, part literary anthology written on skin. Special features include a reprint of a short story by Donald Barthelme (along with the tattoo it inspired on the author’s daughter), an interview with Brian Evenson about seeing his own work tattooed on someone else, Shelley Jackson’s SKIN Project and Rick Moody’s Shelley Jackson tattoo, Jonathan Lethem’s homage to Philip K. Dick, Tao Lin’s Tao Lin tattoo, and more. Media highlights: Feature in The New York Times Sunday Book Review; Listing in The New York Times Holiday Gift Guide; Interview and online slideshow in NPR’s “On Point” with Tom Ashbrook; Article in the New Yorker’s Book Bench blog (reposted on The Daily Dish); Feature article and slideshow in The Huffington Post; Feature in the August/September issue of Shelf Unbound, Interview and photo gallery in The Daily Beast; Feature article in the Boston Phoenix; Brief article about book trailer in the Observer.com; Link in Boing Boing’s 2011 Holiday Gift Guide; Feature article in Interview Magazine; Interview and slideshow in Paper; Feature article in NBCNewYork.com; Article and slideshow in AOL News; Feature article on NYPost.com and the Brooklyn Paper; Article about book trailer in New York Magazine.com; Interview in the Miami New Times.com; Interview in Mediabistro’s GalleyCat; Interview in The L Magazine; Interview in the Examiner.com; Feature article in Canada.com; Article about book trailer in PW.com; Feature article in Ink Butter; Brief article about book trailer in BlackBookMag.com; Brief article about book proposal in USAToday.com; Article about book proposal in Forbes.com. About the editors: Eva Talmadge’s fiction has appeared in Subtropics, The New York Tyrant, The Agriculture Reader, The New Orleans Review, and elsewhere. Visit her at evatalmadge.net. Justin Taylor is the author of The Gospel of Anarchy and Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever. He also edited The Apocalypse Reader, an anthology of short fiction about the end of the world. Visit him at justindtaylor.net. Got a literary tattoo? Send it in using the “submit” button below.Tumblr (3.0; @tattoolit)http://tattoolit.com/<img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv1h295L0B1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>“The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love” </p> <p>-from Aristophanes’ Speech in Plato’s Symposium, but also an homage to “The Origin of Love” from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The infinity shape represents our infinite capacity to love ourselves and others—or something like that…</p>http://tattoolit.com/post/18132947223http://tattoolit.com/post/18132947223Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:20:05 -0500<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luubplFuZP1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>F. Scott Fitzgerald.</p> <p>It’s true.</p>http://tattoolit.com/post/18073859782http://tattoolit.com/post/18073859782Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:20:05 -0500<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luua2kkmzf1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Left: The Princess of Pure Reason, Right: The Princess of Sweet Rhyme from Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth, illustrated by Jules Feiffer</p>http://tattoolit.com/post/18070356072http://tattoolit.com/post/18070356072Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:40:06 -0500“The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”<br/><br/> - <em>Samuel Beckett, <em>Murphy</em> (via <a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://grecianurn.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">grecianurn</a>)</em>http://tattoolit.com/post/18013326558http://tattoolit.com/post/18013326558Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:20:06 -0500<img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luri6xEhGy1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://tattoolit.com/post/18009936841http://tattoolit.com/post/18009936841Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:40:05 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lura78P5ff1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>My tattoo reads ‘be better; not bitter’ and is a quote from a collection of short stories by Australian author, Tim Winton, called ‘A Minimum of Two.’ It resonates with me as a reminder of how I want to live my life even when its hard.  </p>http://tattoolit.com/post/17950166636http://tattoolit.com/post/17950166636Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:20:06 -0500“How we need another soul to cling to, another body to keep us warm. To rest and trust; to give your soul in confidence: I need this, I need someone to pour myself into. Maybe I need a man. One sure thing, I haven’t met him yet.”<br/><br/> - <em><p>Sylvia Plath, Journals</p> <div></div> <p>(via <a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://grecianurn.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">grecianurn</a>)</p></em>http://tattoolit.com/post/17946079669http://tattoolit.com/post/17946079669Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:40:06 -0500<img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lujghwHBMe1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><em>Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat in The Hat</em>. My sister and I’s wrists. This is who we always have been…a close pair, defiant to the world. We live 3000 miles apart now, and I miss Thing 2. But I know that we will always be an infamous duo. </p>http://tattoolit.com/post/17886810627http://tattoolit.com/post/17886810627Sun, 19 Feb 2012 11:20:05 -0500<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lug7sbPfeC1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Smaug for The Hobbit</p>http://tattoolit.com/post/17882742421http://tattoolit.com/post/17882742421Sun, 19 Feb 2012 09:40:06 -0500<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lug7r7HsdZ1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>These Hobbits were drawn by my own personal Sam.</p>http://tattoolit.com/post/17826061165http://tattoolit.com/post/17826061165Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:20:06 -0500“<p>“The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose”</p> <p> — Margaret Atwood</p>”<br/><br/> - <em>(via <a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://booksandothergeekery.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">booksandothergeekery</a>)</em>http://tattoolit.com/post/17821796566http://tattoolit.com/post/17821796566Sat, 18 Feb 2012 09:40:06 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lud1efhuxf1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>“nolite te bastardes carborundorum”</p> <p>It’s from Margaret Atwood’s book <em>The Handmaid’s Tale</em>, one of my favorite books from one of my favorite authors. It means “don’t let the bastards grind you down.”</p>http://tattoolit.com/post/17769326069http://tattoolit.com/post/17769326069Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:20:05 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luatc273C71qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://tattoolit.com/post/17765923989http://tattoolit.com/post/17765923989Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:40:05 -0500“Everybody’s youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.”<br/><br/> - <em>F. Scott Fitzgerald. (via <a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://poetic-bullshit.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">poetic-bullshit</a>)</em>http://tattoolit.com/post/17714343464http://tattoolit.com/post/17714343464Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:20:05 -0500<img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu97r8R0W11qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>I dwell in books, both in my personal life and professional life. (I am a librarian). I had many possible lines to describe my love of reading but could not narrow to one. I was inspired by a line from the book <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books</span> by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. “Where I Dwell” was apt and simple. I love words and word tattoos so the font was important to me. I found some online and my tattoo artist came up with this one. To me, the flowers coming out of the book represent both how one “blooms” when reading and symbolizes words flowing out of a book.</p>http://tattoolit.com/post/17711396606http://tattoolit.com/post/17711396606Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:40:06 -0500<img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltsic6eFFY1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>This is my V.F.D. tattoo from A Series of Unfortunate Events. It is on left ankle as it should be, on the inside side (which is debatable). If you look at the image a certain way, you can see the letters “V”, “F”, and “D”. (And no, when the hair grew back it did not obscure the image at all!)</p>http://tattoolit.com/post/17660256640http://tattoolit.com/post/17660256640Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:20:05 -0500“Painting is mute poetry, and poetry a speaking picture.”<br/><br/> - <em>Simonides (via <a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://grecianurn.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">grecianurn</a>)</em>http://tattoolit.com/post/17657333345http://tattoolit.com/post/17657333345Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:40:05 -0500<img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltm19hZSCu1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>My tattoo of the V.F.D. logo from A Series of Unfortunate Events. The world is quiet here.</p>http://tattoolit.com/post/17610080427http://tattoolit.com/post/17610080427Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:20:05 -0500<img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lt810pJevQ1qcm6bvo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>My arm.  Design, inking, and photography by the inimitable Matt Myrdal at Pino Bros. in Cambridge, MA.</p>http://tattoolit.com/post/17607220706http://tattoolit.com/post/17607220706Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:40:06 -0500“The problem with fiction, it has to be plausible. That’s not true with non-fiction.”<br/><br/> - <em><p>Tom Wolfe</p> <p>/via <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/01/27/famous-authors-on-truth-vs-fiction/" title="Brain Pickings" target="_blank">Brain Pickings</a></p> <p>(via <a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://joestracci.org/" target="_blank">joestracci</a>)</p></em>http://tattoolit.com/post/17554576693http://tattoolit.com/post/17554576693Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:20:05 -0500