The Word Made Flesh

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard    

On Tuesday August 2nd (that’s tomorrow!) tattoo artist Chris Garver will be at the Michaels on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for National Coloring Book Day. Come say hello!

Combining my two loves: writing and reading. It is a tattoo that reminds me to let myself feel the past to inspire my writing. Plus The Great Gatsby is my favorite novel. This is the first of 5 planned literary tattoos.

My To Kill a Mockingbird tribute

"Perhaps, one day, even this will be pleasant to recall" - Aeneid 1:203

From "Return of the King", by J.R.R. Tolkien: "Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!" A cold voice answered: ‘Come not between the Nazgûl and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye.” A sword rang as it was drawn. “Do what you will; but I will hinder it, if I may.” “Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!” Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. “But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund’s daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.” ---------- The Witch-King of Angmar is the Lord of the Nazgûl, the second most evil character in the LOTR trilogy. When he appears, men tremble and flee. This is probably for the best, because there is a thousand-year-old prophesy about the Witch-King: Far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of man will he fall. During the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, the Nazgûl attacked and King Théoden was mortally wounded. As usual, the men ran away in terror, leaving a single soldier to challenge the Nazgûl. The Witch-King advanced on the soldier, threatening torture and referring to the prophesy, which he believed made him deathless. The soldier then revealed herself to be a woman, Théoden's niece Éowyn. The Witch-King hesitated but attacked her, and she destroyed him by driving her sword between his crown and mantle. The line reminds me of three things: 1. Never assume a woman can't succeed where many others have lost their courage. 2. When your enemies think they're about to defeat you, sometimes the best course of action is to laugh at them and stab them in the face. 3. Always -- always! -- make sure you know the exact wording of the prophesy.

My partner and I got matching tattoos from Fantastic Mr. Fox by Ronald Dahl. 'Good Luck Out There' Brown Soul Tattoos Guttenberg, NJ

Emma Straub, The Vacationers    

Everywhere I go, I always have my book with me. 

  Tattooed by Shona Crawford at Adorn Tattoo in Portland, OR

Maya Angelou

From The Handmaid's Tale. :) "Don't let the bastards grind you down."

Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale)

My favourite quote from the Lord of The Rings trilogy- "Not all who wander are lost"- in Qwenya Elvish on my left ribs

From the novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut: "But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes." Throughout the novel, when he writes about a tragic memory he follows it with the simple phrase "so it goes." After a difficult year of failing to adapt to or make sense of how things in my home life had gotten to where they were, this reoccurring theme from the novel kept ringing in my ears. Finding comfort in its simplicity it made leaving the dysfunction in the past possible for me.

Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch