The rise of the text tattoo.
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Some subcultures, such as metal, hip-hop or those based around graphic novels, are particularly fond of tattoos.
They can be inspiring, says writer and critic Sam Leith, but there are pitfalls. "Your tastes will probably change fundamentally. You may really think that Catcher in the Rye is the secret to your whole personality at 15. At 50, you probably won't. Something cryptic and short is better."
Victoria Beckham's tattoo quotes the Song of Solomon from the Old Testament
Why the musings of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard or a Guns N Roses lyric needs to be branded across someone's back might puzzle some people. Can't someone just keep it in their head?
I am my love's / And my love is mine / Who browses among the lilies
Victoria Beckham's Song of Solomon tattoo
Ing says the Moby Dick quote is about not wanting to forget that moment of connection. "I so wanted to remind myself. I didn't want to forget. I wanted my future self to remember that it's important to be independent," she says.
Like all tattoos there's a contradiction - of wanting to be unique and at the same part of something, says Nina Jablonski, professor of anthropology at Pennsylvania State University.
"It's about establishing shared identity and signifying something important to that individual," she says. And there's the element of the icebreaker - that quote from Shakespeare, Dante or line from Nietzsche introduces you to someone.
There's also more than a soupcon of showing off, says Adrian Todd Zuniga, founder of Literary Death Match - in which writers read from their work in front of an audience, plus a panel of judges. The tattoo fits into an increasing hunger for literary cachet, he believes.
"We know from Death Match that people want to be and feel literary. It's the one thing that is everlasting and cool. They want to be perceived as bookish."
Elis Ing's Moby Dick tattoo
It doesn't always work, especially when the choice of text seems incongruous. Eyebrows were raised when Danielle Lloyd sported a Latin quote that probably intended to capture Nietzsche's "What does not destroy me, makes me stronger" philosophy, but actually translated as, "Who I wear away for me only for me strong".
There's another question that bothers the literary purist. Does this person really understand the author's meaning? Megan Fox may know the meaning of the "gilded butterflies" speech. "Or maybe she just thought it sounded pretty," says Zuniga.
Jablonski, author of Skin: A Natural History, is mystified by the trend. She has already seen how easily these quotes - often in tiny print so that they fit - get blurred. "With the trend towards text it's very common for the text to be blurry after six months to a year," she says. "After two years some are already illegible."
Ing loves her Moby Dick tattoo. Her only fear is that a forthcoming BBC adaptation and a movie of the book to be directed by Ron Howard will change it. The whaling novel might become hip, she fears.
"It'll be like pirates a few years ago. I'd be seen as trying to be cool which is the last thing in the world I wanted."
Some subcultures, such as metal, hip-hop or those based around graphic novels, are particularly fond of tattoos.
They can be inspiring, says writer and critic Sam Leith, but there are pitfalls. "Your tastes will probably change fundamentally. You may really think that Catcher in the Rye is the secret to your whole personality at 15. At 50, you probably won't. Something cryptic and short is better."
Victoria Beckham's tattoo quotes the Song of Solomon from the Old Testament
Why the musings of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard or a Guns N Roses lyric needs to be branded across someone's back might puzzle some people. Can't someone just keep it in their head?
I am my love's / And my love is mine / Who browses among the lilies
Victoria Beckham's Song of Solomon tattoo
Ing says the Moby Dick quote is about not wanting to forget that moment of connection. "I so wanted to remind myself. I didn't want to forget. I wanted my future self to remember that it's important to be independent," she says.
Like all tattoos there's a contradiction - of wanting to be unique and at the same part of something, says Nina Jablonski, professor of anthropology at Pennsylvania State University.
"It's about establishing shared identity and signifying something important to that individual," she says. And there's the element of the icebreaker - that quote from Shakespeare, Dante or line from Nietzsche introduces you to someone.
There's also more than a soupcon of showing off, says Adrian Todd Zuniga, founder of Literary Death Match - in which writers read from their work in front of an audience, plus a panel of judges. The tattoo fits into an increasing hunger for literary cachet, he believes.
"We know from Death Match that people want to be and feel literary. It's the one thing that is everlasting and cool. They want to be perceived as bookish."
Elis Ing's Moby Dick tattoo
It doesn't always work, especially when the choice of text seems incongruous. Eyebrows were raised when Danielle Lloyd sported a Latin quote that probably intended to capture Nietzsche's "What does not destroy me, makes me stronger" philosophy, but actually translated as, "Who I wear away for me only for me strong".
There's another question that bothers the literary purist. Does this person really understand the author's meaning? Megan Fox may know the meaning of the "gilded butterflies" speech. "Or maybe she just thought it sounded pretty," says Zuniga.
Jablonski, author of Skin: A Natural History, is mystified by the trend. She has already seen how easily these quotes - often in tiny print so that they fit - get blurred. "With the trend towards text it's very common for the text to be blurry after six months to a year," she says. "After two years some are already illegible."
Ing loves her Moby Dick tattoo. Her only fear is that a forthcoming BBC adaptation and a movie of the book to be directed by Ron Howard will change it. The whaling novel might become hip, she fears.
"It'll be like pirates a few years ago. I'd be seen as trying to be cool which is the last thing in the world I wanted."
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