100 Things I Really Really Like (Plus Stories): Literary Tattoos

[ishyface]

I like books most than most people. It's taken me a while to realize that, but it's true. When given a choice between talking to people and reading a book I will usually choose the latter. That is maybe a little sad and antisocial because when you talk to people you can make new friends and, like, soul-bond and shit.

But when you read books you get to read books. Which has always been more appealing to me.

I do not like tattoos more than most people, but I do like them a lot.* I'm not sure when that started- I nknow when I was a teenager I couldn't imagine ever having anything on my body permanently- but it did. When I get sad, one of the ways I bring myself out of it is by thinking about what tattoos I ant next, planning them, sketching them, occasionally calling people out of the blue and asking them to design crap for me. Tattoos are my happy place.**

When I first started getting tattoos at the tender age of nineteen (initially as a misplaced attempt to get my then-girlfriend to stay with me), I figured out pretty quickly that most of the ones I was planning involved books. The second one I got was a Sandman tattoo; the third was a perks reference; the last was the VFD eye. I also have A Wind In The Door, The Homeward-Bounders, and House Of Leaves tattoos planned. There are other things I want tattoos for, like songs and films and family members and relationships, but the book tattoos I want are usually floating somewhere up there in my brain.

I love books. I love tattoos. I love it when they smush together and make beautiful things on people's skin.

Related: Contrariwise.

* I always feel the need to specify this- when I say "tattoos" I mean "well done, well placed, well cared for tattoos," not "look, I got Tweety Bird on my ass!"

** Sometimes thinking about stretching my ears is also my happy place, but that ones gets a little less mileage, as there isn't much variation to "the hole gets bigger."***

*** That's what she said.

Comments

[xcarex.livejournal.com]

Yaaaaaaaay, tattoo talk! Your literary references are my fandom pieces (kawaii bunny face from Sailormoon, the Hanson symbol, the code for ♥ and a Kurt Halsey kitty) aaand about four band lyric bits planned and a combination still-straight-edge/cross-stitching/roman numerals XXX plan for my thirtieth birthday... which is less than two years away.

But more relevant-- I am getting a TARDIS next weekend. :D


PS: Why don't we talk about Perks like, in every conversation we ever have? I am slowly dying inside waiting for the movie to come out. I just want a fucking TRAILER already.

[ishyface.livejournal.com]

What's the Hanson symbol one? I think I've seen your Kurt Halsey and the ♥ code. What lyrics do you have planned? And a TARDIS! Where are you getting that done?

P.S.: Oh, bro, don't even say shit to me about that fucking movie, I already hate it and I've only seen the poster and the cast list. Ughhhh.

[xcarex.livejournal.com]

I have this on my lower back. Yep, Hanson tramp stamp. Except that term wasn't a thing when I got it in 2001. I was in grade 12 and all I knew about that "location" on my body was that you couldn't see it in my winter formal dress, which had a really low scooping back on it... Oh well.

And I am getting my TARDIS (specifically the TARDamask style from the Threadless tee, which looks like this) between my shoulder blades, next Saturday, by Mike Power, the guy who also did my kitty. He used to be the co-owner of Utility here in Halifax but struck out on his own and I am super excited and he's also a Whovian so he's stoked too!

And WHAT WHAT WHAT. First off, any Perks poster you would've seen is not really the poster. There are only fan-made ones out there, nothing real, just stuff cobbled together from promotional photos. And Stephen Chbosky cast that shit himself and said that the people he chose were his perfect dream cast, so I trust him. But then again, I am an enormous fan of Logan Lerman's anyway and if the only thing you've seen him in is Percy Jackson then your opinions are wrong already, and I trust him entirely with this regardless of Chbosky's claims that he IS Charlie and was born to play this role, etc etc etc.

I also love Mae Whitman a lot and I'm not afraid of Emma Watson's American accent, I'm sure it's good enough. Some of the adults I'm a bit iffy on but they make up for it by putting Nick Braun in the movie in any capacity. And Ezra Miller was fantastic in We Need to Talk About Kevin so that put my concerns about that to rest as well.

I agree about Nina Dobrev but I think the deal there is that she's got a bigger name so people are talking about her, but she wasn't really anyone when the movie was filmed and it's not a huge part, so whatever, I'm willing to accept the taint of Vampire Diaries for the trade off of everyone else, but especially Lerman.

[ishyface.livejournal.com]

That is an exceptionally pretty TARDIS!

I really enjoy Mae Whitman, and liked Ezra Miller in We Need To Talk About Kevin. I still do not have much of an opinion on Logan Lerman, as I've not seen him in anything (still). My feels re: the film come from the fact that I love the book a lot and am bound to hate the movie because of that. This is usually the way for me when I've read the book first (with a few exceptions, like The Hunger Games). I'm sure Stephen Chbosky is psyched about the cast and the movie and all, and that's cool. I'm just not.

[xcarex.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know exactly what you mean. I hate most adaptations of books I love, but when the authors get involved, I am usually more open to it, because I know that they are going to do shit right. So with Chbosky writing the screenplay and fucking directing the thing, I get excited.

ETA: But it's okay that you aren't! I just hope you go see it when it comes out and that you end up liking it, even if it's not perfect. It's an extension of the canon, not meant to replace the book we love. It came out when I was in grade nine, I have super special *~feelings*~ attached to it, yo.

Also, there are a lot of ways to entice people into Lerman-love, but sometimes you don't have time to sit down and fall in love with him over the course of his entire career. Or at least, his career from Jack & Bobby onwards, because he grows up ever so nicely and typically chooses really unusual roles for his age. Like "Meet Bill", in which he dresses up in lingerie and dances around for Jessica Alba's amusement.

[shitgun.livejournal.com]

juuuust comment creeping to <3 that my old ra/faaavorite also has that same hanson tattoo but all black so this made me smile

[eljuno.livejournal.com]

One of these days, when I get the time, money and space, I'm going to get the symbol on this icon tattooed on the inside of my left arm.

[ishyface.livejournal.com]

Are you a Discordian, then? I didn't know!

[eljuno.livejournal.com]

I'm wicked sorry this ended up coming by so late (I was in St. Louis, on an iPad that refused to log into LJ)

Yeah, I am, and I also have a level of fondness for Loki that occasionally can be mistaken for/understood as some form of religion.

[gair.livejournal.com]

Ooh, what's the Homeward Bounders one (going to be) like?

[ishyface.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of a very simple anchor, possibly with one of those old-school banners that says "you wouldn't believe how lonely you get." The Homeward-Bounders was a big deal for me as a kid and is a bigger deal to me as an adult who wants to write non-awful children's books.

[gair.livejournal.com]

Oh, perfect! The Homeward Bounders is probably DWJ's best book, I think, which pretty much means it is THE BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD.

[ishyface.livejournal.com]

Pretty much! I first read it on my birthday in eighth grade and it is an unofficial tradition of mine that I reread it around the same time every year. It makes me very sad in the best kind of way.

[end-in-myself.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Ooh! I've thought about getting a House of Leaves tattoo before. What might you get?

[ishyface.livejournal.com]

The "noli me tangere" I want to get (cursive, joined so it forms a circle/armband) is half an oblique HoL reference and half an Anne Boleyn reference. I was also kicking around the idea of "A FACE IN A CLOUD NO TRACE IN THE CROWD" on the back of my neck.

[shitgun.livejournal.com]

i am jelly like burning STILL over your perks tattoo. also this might be a better place than some others to ask since you're into this, PLZ GIVE ME TATTOO ADVICE.

[ishyface.livejournal.com]

What kind of advice are you after, kiddo?

[shitgun.livejournal.com]

Basically, I have some feels about ya fiction, specifically Sarah Dessen novels and one of them features the line "disco is for healing." I've been wanting a Sarah Dessen tattoo for ages and I was retreading that book over break and it struck me how accurate this line has been to my life and especially this year (music keeps me sane and wonderful anonyminity in crowds etc) buuut I am really conscious of how it makes me sound like an insipid stupid party girl, which I would generally like to avoid being typecast as. Sincethis is something you're into: thoughts? Opinions on fonts or placement or idk stuff?

[spikey-kris.livejournal.com]

When I get sad I cheer myself up by figuring out what I can change about myself too, and I have so many tattoos planned out. SO MANY. My tattoos and stretched ears make me happy as fuck. Even when my old crusty aunts cluck about how gross it is while I'm standing right in front of them. Maybe even more in that case...

[uncommon-crow.livejournal.com]

<3

Expect a Thinky Email about related subjects soon...

p.s. Will try to get you some pics of Kelsey's tattoos. They're rather awesome. Like a hundred billion hotdogs.