Watership Down: The story of my life

[kwisper]

Hi there everyone,

So some of you may or may not remember me and my first tattoo which I got in January. It’s from the book and movie, Watership Down by Richard Adams. I am absolutely in love with it and have definitely been bitten by the tattoo bug. I have decided on my next tattoo which will also be from Watership Down (I swear I’m going to be a walking version of this book very soon). This book is pretty much the story of my life, which is a weird thing to say considering it's a fantasy/allegory about rabbits. But in all seriousness, I have owned rabbits since I was 4, I'm in school to become a veterinarian, and every other line in that book seems to speak to me. My first tattoo is on my ribs and says, "My heart has joined the Thousand" for all those (rabbits and otherwise) that I have loved and lost and will always remember. And now I am getting another. I want this next quote somewhere where I can read it because it is a reminder to myself. I have come to accept that perhaps some things happen for a reason. I'm not a religious person but I'm not beyond believing that maybe we can't control everything that happens or that some things might be predetermined (both good and bad). It's a reminder to myself to not dwell on stuff that happens and not worry too much about trying to dictate my life. Think of it as my own personal version of the popular "So it goes". Anyway, I have a couple of questions to which I would appreciate some advice as you were all extremely helpful the last time around:

1. The full quote is “There is not a day or night that a doe does not offer her life for her kittens, or some honest captain of Owsla, his life for his chief. But there is no bargain: what is, is what must be.” Now, I don’t have a copy of the book with me at school and I can’t find this being quoted from the book online anywhere… everywhere I find it, it is quoted from the movie. Does anyone know if this exact quote is in the book or know what the equivalent is?
2. I want to get just “what is, is what must be” and I want it broken up into “what is” on my left wrist and “is what/must be” on the right (broken into two lines at the slash). A couple of asthetic questions. Obviously the two quotes aren’t equal in length and one will be one line and the other two lines. To even this out I’d thought of making the font on the left wrist bigger. My other idea was to get an image on the left above the quote, most likely of the black rabbit… however, I already have El-Ahrairah on my ribs, and as much as I love rabbits (I own three) and the book, I don’t know that I want to cover myself in them. The last option is to just embrace the assymetry (the option I think I'm leaning towards right now). Any thoughts? The other thing I was wondering about was punctuation. Should I put ellipses in since the quote comes at the end of a sentence and is broken up? I.e. “…what is…” and “…is what must be….” Or without ellipses and leave the comma in “what is,” and “is what must be”. Or finally, “…what is,” and “is what must be”.
3. Finally, I am trying to decide between getting it done in my own writing vs. some sort of serif font. Any suggestions or experience/advice anyone has concerning getting their own handwriting? My printing is very neat and I do like it, but I also write VERY small. If I were to write bigger it wouldn’t be as nice. If I give them a sample of the quote in my writing can they increase the font to an appropriate size for a tattoo?

Thanks in advance everyone!