Literary Tattoos

It's great how one site will have an arbitrary link that takes you to somewhere else, which leads you to somewhere else, which leads you to something really cool!

So I stumbled upon this blog for a late 20's early 30's reading group. Which had an entry for literary tattoos:

A NY Times Paper Cuts post recently featured a growing trend amongst bibliophiles: the literary tattoo. Apparently permanently marking your body with your favorite bookish reference and then posting photos of it for all the world to see (even when the result is, well…not that great) is all the rage amongst bibliophiles. Vonnegut, Plath, Dr. Suess, and Walt Whitman seem to claim top honors for offering the “Most Tattooable Quotes”.

I spent several hours the other morning perusing the Contrariwise site, oohing and awwing over some of the tats.

Then I stumbled upon a link to another site. Shelley Jackson's - Ineradicable Stain is showcasing her short story Skin that is "a story published on the skin of 2095 volunteers." Each participant has one word from the story published somewhere on their body. At first some of the volunteer's were disappointed with their word choice, as it is totally random, but eventually they have some sort of tale that goes along with it to make it special to them.

I like the tale of "wake":
I didnt really connect with this word until I had a discussion with a friend who enlightened me that it may be, in fact, the perfect word for me. I was in a relationship that was keeping me in this terrible hibernation. I've recently gotten out of it .. and feel more alive, more awake than ever before. Since I've sent in my documentation, I've made it even hold even deeper meaning for me.