{blast from the past post} Bookish Body Art: Literary Tattoos

{This is content that originally ran July 13, 2010. Click here for the original post.}

Inspired by the number of people on my Facebook feed acquiring tattoos, I decided to do some Googling and see if I could find any literary specimens to feature here. And because the blogosphere is incredible like that, there is, of course, an entire site devoted to the topic (as well as oodles of articles on the subject and a healthy LiveJournal forum). Contrariwise posts photos of tattoos inspired by books, poems, quotations, lyrics etc., and the variety is really quite extraordinary. There is also, inevitably, repetition, which may be disheartening to some who get a tattoo they think is unique, or perhaps it could actually create a sense of community among people with the same source of inspiration. (Since I'm too fickle to get a tattoo, I guess it's a situation I'll never face!)

Alice in Wonderland seems to be a frequent theme. (As an aside, I love the cat in the top photo — I can just see him thinking, "I know that's a bird...")

From Le Petit Prince: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." 

 An illustration by John Alcorn from Books! by Murray McCain. 

From The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis. 

Want to see more? HarperCollins will release a book called The World Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide this autumn.