Literary Tattoos

We've briefly covered typographic tattoos before on The FontFeed, and mentioned Ina Saltz' Body Type: Intimate Messages Etched in Flesh, an entire book devoted to this phenomenon. I recently was made aware of a website that combines the two. Contrariwise is a website about literary tattoos – tattoos based on books, poems, lyrics, and many other literary sources. The main focus of the entries is the literary source and the background of the text fragments that people commit to their skin, and some of the stories behind the texts are fascinating reads. Although many of those tattoos are designed with scripts and lettering, some are also typographic. Here's a selection from the last half year or so.

Suppose we have only dreamed,| From The Silver Chair (1953) by C.S. Lewis. Set in Footlight.

Going from – – Toward : | Henry David Thoreau, first published in The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau (1906). Set in Courier.

Until I Find You – Clair de Lune| Until I Find You (2005) by John Irving, and Clair de Lune (1890) by Claude Debussy. Very similar to ITC Edwardian Script.

So it goes| The phrase "so it goes" appears 116 times in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). Set in Bookman (the original, not the ITC version).

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it …| Quote by Confucius (551 – 479 B.C.). Set in Amazone.

You'll end up looking at the sky| From Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) by Truman Capote. Set in Zapfino.

Header image:It's history. It's poetry. | From Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J. D. Salinger. Set in Courier.