I'm all for literary quotes in most formats, but in the long-lost days of the Cheech &

Previous comment swallowed by the cookie filter, never mind...

OK, one more time... My favorite lit-quote is from Stephen King's "The Shining": "Tough old world, baby-if you're not tightly bolted together you're giong to shake, rattle, and roll by the time you're 30." Having said that, my personal Taliban-like attitude toward tats as an artform (especially chick tats!) dates from a close encounter in the 70's with one that was misspelled while I was attempting to reenter Earth orbit after a massive accidental dose of Green Monster microdot... Longwinded digression, but it was the kind of thing that makes a lasting impression, eh, what?

I've got one! Picture me, starry-eyed in university, hairdyed daughter of a librarian & aspiring writer... & I stumble upon Nabokov's masterpiece - Pale Fire. Give it a year, & in honor of the poet-cum-lepidopterist I boast a moth tatooed on each wrist! Impulsive, & much warned-against, but it's a choice I've never regretted, & I savor it on every reread...

Kevin A. Lewis, THE HORROR! THE HORROR! A misspelled tat? Worse than any flashback. Erzsebet, I want a photo! Send to thereadingwriter at aol dot com. Your moths sound rather cool...

I want to get "Timshel" from Steinbeck's book East of Eden. It captures my entire life philosophy in one word (which means less pain for me while GETTING the tattoo!). In Hebrew it is actually spelled "Timshol" but I prefer to see it on myself as Steinbeck chose to write it, because that is how it originally became so much to me. It means Thou Mayest and in the book it is used to get across the point that you chose what kind of person you are, and how you react to the world around you. It makes me pause to think before I act, and anything that makes me do that deserves a permanent place on my body.

whats left to lose? i've done enough. and if i fail, well then i fail but i gave it a shot.

-the format, on your porch

After much consideration, I've decided to get "the mausoleum of all hope and desire" tattooed on my rib cage. It's from William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. The part I'm getting is from a description of a pocket watch, so I am also getting a pocket watch on my side, with the hands set to my mother's time of death and the words "only when the clock stops does time come alive" around the edge of the watch (more Faulkner). I'm working on the design right now so that I can try to make it look as elegant as possible.

After talking her into reading Stephen King's seminal series, The Dark Tower, she got a tattoo of two sparrows (signifying our two daughters) holding a banner between them. Written on the banner is a tem from this series. Ka-tet, which means "family" or "a group brought together by destiny" or something in that vein. Seems quite interesting to me, of course, I'm biased to King's works anyway, lol.

Two of my six tattoos are literary, and I'm looking to get a third literary one.

The first non-musical ink I got is a gold pentangle on a red background. It's above my outer ankle on my left leg. It's the symbol on Sir Gawain's shield in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

The second non-musical ink (the 5th tat I got) is a quote from "The Second Coming" by W.B. Yeats. "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" and it's centered just perfectly with my SGGK star and is on the inside of my leg.

Looking for number seven to be either a SlaughterHouse Five, a Tolkein quote, or a quote from MacBeth, on my inner right-hand wrist.

Apologies for hijacking this post, but some of the above-mentioned artwork sounds amazing, and I have to share a call for submissions: We are seeking high quality photographs of your literary tattoos for an upcoming book. Send us your ink! Submissions are open to all kinds of literary tattoo work: quotations from your favorite writer, opening lines of novels, lines of verse, literary portraits or illustrations. From Shakespeare to Bukowski to The Little Prince in a Baobab tree, if it’s a literary tattoo and its on your body, we want to see it.

All images must include the name (or pseudonym) of the tattoo bearer, city and state or country, and a transcription of the text itself, along with its source. For portraits or illustrations, please include the name of the author or book on which it’s based. We’d also like to read a few words about the tattoo’s meaning to you — why you chose it, when you first read that poem or book, or how its meaning has evolved over time. How much (or how little) you choose to say about your tattoo is up to you, but a paragraph or two should do the trick.

Please send clear digital images of the highest print quality possible to tattoolit at gmail dot com. Pixel resolutions should be at least 1500 x 1200, or a minimum 300 dpi at 5 inches wide. Text should be included in the body of the email, not as an attached document. Also be sure to include one or more pieces of contact information, so we can let you know if you’re going to be in the book.