Who knows how to make love stay?
Just got my third (and favorite) literary tattoo! This one is taken from the Tom Robbins book Still Life With Woodpecker, and I am so goddamn happy with it that I want to shout it from the rooftops.
I never realized how hard it is to photograph the entire side of your arm until now! :)
A VERY special thanks to my tattoo artist, Jason Vaughn at Deluxe Tattoo in Chicago, for his incredible work. And of course, to Tom Robbins. The tattoo is based off of the cover art as well as this quote:
"Who knows how to make love stay?
Tell love you are going to the Junior's Deli on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to pick up a cheesecake, and if love stays, it can have half. It will stay.
Tell love you want a momento of it and obtain a lock of its hair. Burn the hair in a dime-store incense burner with yin/yang symbols on three sides. Face southwest. Talk fast over the burning hair in a convincingly exotic language. Remove the ashes of the burnt hair and use them to paint a mustache on your face. Find love. Tell it you are someone new. It will stay.
Wake love up in the middle of the night. Tell it the world is on fire. Dash to the bedroom window and pee out of it. Casually return to bed and assure love that everything is going to be all right. Fall asleep. Love will be there in the morning."
I also realized that I don't think I ever posted any pictures of my second tattoo, so why not now? It's based off of Elizabeth Bishop's poem One Art. I know a lot of folks over here have some variation on this tattoo, so here's my take. :)
I got it on a whim (although I'd been thinking about it for years) while in Swansea, Wales studying Dylan Thomas. I thought that since I went halfway across the world for a poet, it would be a good time to reaffirm my commitment to the craft. It's positioned so that when I hold a pen it faces me directly, like a little reminder to write things even though it might be difficult.
And if you're curious about my first tattoo, it's a Denis Johnson quote on my back that I posted here a couple of years ago. I do happen to have a nicer picture of it all healed up, though, so while I'm at it, why not?
Whew! Sorry for the long post! Hope you like 'em. :)
I never realized how hard it is to photograph the entire side of your arm until now! :)
A VERY special thanks to my tattoo artist, Jason Vaughn at Deluxe Tattoo in Chicago, for his incredible work. And of course, to Tom Robbins. The tattoo is based off of the cover art as well as this quote:
"Who knows how to make love stay?
Tell love you are going to the Junior's Deli on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to pick up a cheesecake, and if love stays, it can have half. It will stay.
Tell love you want a momento of it and obtain a lock of its hair. Burn the hair in a dime-store incense burner with yin/yang symbols on three sides. Face southwest. Talk fast over the burning hair in a convincingly exotic language. Remove the ashes of the burnt hair and use them to paint a mustache on your face. Find love. Tell it you are someone new. It will stay.
Wake love up in the middle of the night. Tell it the world is on fire. Dash to the bedroom window and pee out of it. Casually return to bed and assure love that everything is going to be all right. Fall asleep. Love will be there in the morning."
I also realized that I don't think I ever posted any pictures of my second tattoo, so why not now? It's based off of Elizabeth Bishop's poem One Art. I know a lot of folks over here have some variation on this tattoo, so here's my take. :)
I got it on a whim (although I'd been thinking about it for years) while in Swansea, Wales studying Dylan Thomas. I thought that since I went halfway across the world for a poet, it would be a good time to reaffirm my commitment to the craft. It's positioned so that when I hold a pen it faces me directly, like a little reminder to write things even though it might be difficult.
And if you're curious about my first tattoo, it's a Denis Johnson quote on my back that I posted here a couple of years ago. I do happen to have a nicer picture of it all healed up, though, so while I'm at it, why not?
Whew! Sorry for the long post! Hope you like 'em. :)