I am a self-confessed bibliophile, a literary junkie, to the point where the smell of old leather-bound books gives me one hell of a lady boner. I read voraciously and without (much) prejudice, I must have a book with me at all times or I feel naked and vulnerable. I love tattoos, not all tattoos mind you, the generically popular chinese symbols, tribal tramp stamps and the various different number and arrangement of stars that too many young females have inked on their bodies leave me cold and oscillating wildly between indifference and annoyance. Tattoos that mean something, pictorial or typographical, that celebrate milestones of tragedy, triumph, remembrance or even the invoking of a moment in time, a simple recollection of a carpe diem, all interest me, not only as tattoos by their own right but in the person who they are engraved on. So the combination of these two loves in to the growing trend of literary tattoos leaves me breathless with elation and euphoria.
“Written down here, gentle reader
It seems too good to be true
But there’s a girl in Kansas City
With my favourite tattoo
Oh why would I lie to you?
This was in another century
Somewhere near the summer’s end
The fahrenheit was frightening
I was awake the whole weekend
Invited to a barbecue
I found refuge in the kitchen
Discussing post-war US literature
With a girl whose upper arm read “fiction”
Like it might have been typewritten
I asked her its significance
She said she sometimes took reminding
What she wanted to be doing
Whether reading it or writing”- “Fiction” by The Lucksmiths
All the above are taken from the incomparable Bookworms with ink http://community.livejournal.com/literarytattoos. Another site to satisfy your new obsession is http://www.contrariwise.org. There are also books on the subject, the three I recommend:
