Cam and Alexandria Talk Literary Tattoos

Wondered about getting a tattoo about your favorite literary work? Cam and Alexandria offer their takes on it. 

Cam: 

As an almost English teacher with an appreciation for tattoos, I’ve thought of how badass I would be if I had full-arm sleeves of literary references. While there’s the concern of deterring a future employee with tattoos, raising questions of professionalism, I can’t help but get giddy over the idea of teaching a book to my future students and showing them a tattoo in reference to that book.

Of course, for now, I’m a coward over body modification and commitment. I would have to be dead in love with a work of literature and a design for the tattoo before I considered maybe getting it. But there’s at least one tattoo idea that I’ve toyed with for four years that I hope to get someday. It references my favorite poem: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot. It’s the poem that made me realize I was a poet.

A long-term substitute teacher for my senior AP English class introduced me to the poem during our Hamlet unit, reading it aloud with passion and character. I started working on memorizing the poem –I carried around a copy of it everywhere I went. My sophomore year of college, I started to think about getting some sort of tattoo to commemorate my love for the poem. I had to analyze it for a History of American Literature class, and the image hit me: a pocketwatch with a swatch of the universe replacing the face, with the minute and hour hands flying off the hinges, with the line “Do I dare / Disturb the Universe?” arching around the time piece.

To me, this poem became a carpe diem mantra. Sure, there’s the whole “I want to carpe diem for a girl but I’m too socially awkward to profess my love” undertone to it, and sometimes a lover can be someone’s universe… but the main take-away for me is that Prufrock wants to make something of himself but doesn’t know how. It would be a reminder for me to be extraordinary, to be as grand and explosive as the universe. 

Alexandria:

Like Cam, I too was worried about professionalism when contemplating my first tattoo. Plus, I was a total chicken and nervous about walking into a tattoo shop and acting like a dweeb. Which I did, by the way. My best friend took me into a tattoo shop and I was so awkward and weird. But you know what? I went back and went through with it. I am a dweeb, but I'll be damned if that holds me back.

I've wanted this tattoo for at least six years. Ever since I read Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. The full line from the novel is: "I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am." 

For me, "I am, I am, I am" is an affirmation of my identity as a writer. I look at this tattoo to remind myself of who I am and what my purpose is. 

When I was looking around for fonts, I found this quote tattooed upon someone's wrist in Sylvia Plath's handwriting and that just smacked me over the head with how right it was. So I went and found her handwriting and delivered it to my tattoo artist. He was able to work his magic and turn it into this tattoo. 

Okay, and so this did hurt ever so slightly but it was over super fast and sort of just felt like getting stung by a bee slowly. In case you were wondering about the pain and all. 

And also, yes, I am already plotting my second tattoo. The addiction is not a lie. I will probably end up being the tattooed professor Cam talked about. Just wait. 

Thinking about getting your own literary tattoo? Have one you're super proud of? Share your experience with us in the comments or send an email our way!