onehundreddollars:

Over the past year, my desire to get a tattoo has greatly increased.  There’s just something about using your body as a canvas that appeals to me.  Despite my parents’ best efforts at hammering in the uncouthness of tattoos, I still think they can be done with class.

I’m considering getting a literary tattoo, considering I am such a nerd.  I mean, seriously, my ex-girlfriend and I not only had “a song”…we had a short story.  One of the most attractive girls I’ve ever seen was sitting by the pool, reading a Vonnegut novel… and then, to dig myself into a deeper nerd hole, I wrote a  poem about it. I use terrible literary pick-up lines every chance I get.  Even my first tumblr entry was a small collection of haikus I wrote!  What could be better than getting a piece of literary history tattooed onto me?

I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from Contrariwise, a collection of literary tattoos.  If you haven’t seen it, and are a huge bookworm like I am, you need to check it out.  Additionally, my favorite teacher from high school has a tattoo of James Joyce on his ankle.  I think I’d be in good company.

At first, I wanted to get something from e.e. Cummings poem “i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)”, but after searching on Contrariwise, I found it’s not as unique as I once thought.  So, I’ve decided that I want to get something Kurt Vonnegut related.  Over the past few years, Vonnegut has quickly emerged as one of my favorite authors, with many fantastic quotes and drawings.  I don’t want to get “So it goes” or the Vonnegut birdcage or the Goodbye Blue Monday! blimp…those have been done to death.  However, as I was re-reading “Breakfast of Champions” the other day I found this marvelous quote:

“To be

the eyes

and ears

and conscience

of the Creator of the Universe

you fool.”

This is Kilgore Trout’s response to the question “What is the purpose of life?”  Just to clear things up, I personally don’t believe in a “creator of the universe”, so I interpret the quote to mean that we, as individuals, are the creators of our own universe.  Everything we know about life, the universe, and everything is through our senses, and we need to experience as much as we can.  The purpose of life is to experience all the sensations that life offers.

I’m thinking about getting this on my arm…just a typical tattoo placement, so I could cover it up with a t-shirt, but could roll up the sleeve to show it off.  And I wouldn’t want to get it in some cliche tattoo-font.  I’d like to get it in the same font it was printed on, Bookman Old Style.

So, Mom and Dad, my tattoo would be meaningful, easy to hide, and intelligent! Pretty damn couth, if you ask me.

Bitch you just mad i got it first.

im just happy your not getting “so it goes”