Now I will admit I have never read Slaughterhouse Five (from which the above phrase was taken). It's one of those books I have always been meaning to read. Eventually. Since I haven't my knowledge of this phrase is only that its repeated throughout the book and holds some significance. That's it. But that phrase was able to reach out from a novel and become a person's entire belief system. Enough so that they got a tattoo of it.
I think it's a great testament of a writer's ability to stick with its audience if people are tattooing your words across their skin. I mean that shit is permanent. That's the idea anyway. Your words will be on this person's body until their skin has disintegrated. Imitation might be the highest form of flattery but tattooing someone else's words onto you might be as flattering as it gets.
 |
| via contrariwise.com |
It says "the world is quiet here". The quote is from my favorite book series as a kid, "A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket. I've always loved that quote. But would I get a tattoo of it? After consideration I had to keep it real with myself. Nope. But this person did and I must say it looks very nice.
I'm also a huge fan of Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar". I found this gem:
 |
| via contrariwise.com |
It says "I listened to the old bray of my heart" on the left side and "I am i am i am" on the right.Now I LOVE LOVE LOVE this tattoo. From the font to the placement I think its perfect. However, once again, no, I would not get this tattoo.
Finally, I also fell for this tattoo.
 |
| via contrariwise.com |
From Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk it says "It's only after we've lost everything that we are free to do anything." Another quote that I love and that is pretty popular in the tattoo world. It's great but again not for me.
I am a person who has no tattoos and most likely would never get any because I'm sure as soon as I did I would change my mind and want a different one in a different place. I am the person who struggles to decide what to eat every day and then just as I take the first bite of my Big Mac decide I really wanted pizza. Or maybe sushi. I cannot make a decision to save my life...so hopefully I never have to.
Other people can though. And so many decide what they should tattoo are another person's words. Although I probably won't be jumping on the bandwagon myself I am infatuated with the idea. If someone ever decided to make that commitment between words of mine and their flesh, my words would accept the proposal blushing and crying while calling all the other words over to flaunt the engagement ring.
Contrariwise also has a section for So it goes. I discovered it's a mini literary tattoo phenomenon. All caused by one man's mind. So it goes...'til death and beyond. It's chilling, but in the greatest way.
