Tattooing Quotes & Sayings

Humans give stuff away all the time, practically tattooing their darkest secrets in neon on their skulls for anyone to see. Perverse fuckers. If they shouldn't think about it, they do. If they should think about it, they don't. — Karen Marie Moning

The fact is, that for the Huichol, and for all those who refuse, who are in flight, words and things are precisely what language does not speak about. Language is a natural act which implies belonging. He who exists, speaks. He who does not speak, does not exist. He has no place in the world. The Huichol language is Huichol to the same degree as the Huichol earth, the Huichol sky, religion, tattooing, dress, the peyoteros' hat. It is not enough to pronounce the syllables of the Huichol language to be Huichol. That is obvious. — Jean-Marie G. Le Clezio

Noooooo!Noooooo! Noooooooo!" I rubbed my hand against the sheet till the skin turned red and sore.But all the rubbing and scrubbing wouldn't make it go away. It was permanent, that tattoo. The tattoo that said 'Done With Men'. And it hurt! What on earth was I thinking? My habit of thinking out loud was bad enough, but tattooing my thoughts onto myself? This wasn't happening to me. — Shuchi Singh Kalra

Wear your heart on your skin in this life. — Sylvia Plath

It's not always the style of tattooing but the rather the subject matter that drives me. I love tattooing anything from mythology to comic book superheroes. — William Webb

The grossest form of this injury of the body to ornament it, is in tattooing. Next, the piercing the ear all around its rim, piercing the nose and the lips to introduce rings or bars of jewelry ... — Julia McNair Wright

Know what one of the guys at the drive-through Starbucks has on his forearm?" Bernadette said. "A paper clip! It used to be so daring to get a tattoo. And now people are tattooing office supplies on their bodies. — Maria Semple

There are a few 'Raw Shark Texts' tattoos floating around the Internet now, so I'm gathering them up to post on my forum. It's a strange thought, knowing that readers are tattooing themselves with something I've created, but it feels wonderful to have added something that people care about to the world. — Steven Hall

There are always a lot of jokes and good vibes floating through the studio so tattooing all day doesn't feel like a job. It's rewarding to see my clients as excited as I am. — William Webb

The way he kissed me felt like a brand. Like he was tattooing himself under my skin. — Tammara Webber

What was Latin and the chance of tattooing compared to this? — L.M. Montgomery

And this tattooing, had been the work of a departed prophet and seer of his island, who, by those hieroglyphic marks, had written out on his body a complete theory of the heavens and the earth, and a mystical treatise on the art of attaining truth; so that Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle to unfold; a wondrous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even himself could read, though his own live heart beat against them; and these mysteries were therefore destined in the end to moulder away with the living parchment whereon they were inscribed, and so be unsolved to the last. — Herman Melville

Tattooing is my social life, too, so most of my time is taken up with that. People like Henry Lewis, Mike Davis at Everlasting Tattoo. — Margaret Cho

Some we proudly display on our arms, while others we shyly conceal. Tattoo the moments of sorrow as well as the moments of splendor and beauty. Tattoo in an acknowledgment and tribute to home, and tattooing your beliefs that define who you are. Whether we intended to or not, every moment of our lives are tattooed to our heart. — Forrest Curran

Tattooing, when understood in its entirety, must be seen as a religious act. The human being brings forth images from the center of the self and communicates them to the world. Fantasy is embodied in reality and the person is made whole. — Spider Webb

I had a sudden understanding of tattooing's true appeal: It's
Troll-collecting for biker types. — Peter Trachtenberg

I don't have one specific tattooing specialty. I enjoy doing full-color new school, portraits, neo-traditional, realistic, black and gray, ultra detailed art, etc ... but always custom. — William Webb

And I've been trying everything I can think of since to make up for it - short of tattooing her name on my ass and streaking across Yankee Stadium.
I was saving that for next week. — Emma Chase

Having previously graduated from a 2-year commercial arts class, I thought that commercial illustration was the best way to make a living doing art. But the more tattoos that I did, the more I realized what artistic career potential tattooing had and I enjoyed it. — William Webb

Painting and tattooing the body is a return to animalism. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Video games are like a religion; you want to get people tattooing your little logo on their body so they'll get somebody else interested in it too. — Cliff Bleszinski

The workbench was filled with glassware, books, syringes, tattooing machine parts, plastic bags, tools. Dozens of books on toxins and thousands of downloaded Internet documents, — Jeffery Deaver

You put a tattoo on yourself with the knowledge that this body is yours to have and enjoy while you're here. You have fun with it, and nobody else can control (supposedly) what you do with it. That's why tattooing is such a big thing in prison: it's an expression of freedom - one of the only expressions of freedom there. They can lock you down, control everything, but 'I've got my mind, and I can tattoo my body - alter it my way as an act of personal will.' — Don Ed Hardy

But these are the last remaining years of choice. In the stainless nurseries of the future, the feds will work their way through all the squalling pinkness tattooing a combination tax number and credit number on one wrist, followed closely by the I.T. and T. team putting the permanent phone number, visaphone doubtless, on the other wrist. Die and your number goes back in the bank. It will be the first provable immortality the world has ever known. — John D. MacDonald

Early tattooing was thought to have mystical protection, to be a talisman of sorts worn on the skin. — Kym Grosso

There is no other art medium like tattooing in the world. When the customer comes in with a basic idea, it is up to me to design and translate that idea onto skin. I really appreciate when customers have enough trust in what I can do. — William Webb

The first purpose of clothes ... was not warmth or decency, but ornament ... Among wild people, we find tattooing and painting even prior to clothes. The first spiritual want of a barbarous man is decoration; as indeed we still see among the barbarous classes in civilized countries. — Thomas Carlyle

Comparatively, tattooing is not the hideous custom which it is called. It is not barbarous merely because the printing is skin-deep and unalterable. — Henry David Thoreau

He had seen her painted sign by the road: Skin Illustration! Illustration instead of tattoo! Artistic! — Ray Bradbury

The universality of tattooing is a curious subject for speculation. — James Cook

There's something really the matter with most people who wear tattoos. There's at least some terrible story. I know from experience that there's always something terribly flawed about people who are tattooed, above some little something that Johnny had done in the Navy, even though that's a bad sign ... It's terrible. Psychologically it's crazy. Most people who are tattooed, it's the sign of some feeling of inferiority, they're trying to establish some macho identification for themselves. — Truman Capote

Tattooing is historical, cultural and a great form of art but it should always be safe for both the client and the tattoo practitioner. — William Webb

From the day I met her at the wedding rehearsal, I couldn't stop thinking of her beautiful face. I was forever drawing her, sketching her, and even tattooing her. How many people in Ellsberg were walking around with tattoos of Lark's face? Whenever a client didn't bring a specific image in and a woman's face was involved, I used Lark's. Hell, I hadn't even noticed this fact until two happy clients showed off their tattoos and I realized the pinup girl and fairy princess had the same face. — Bijou Hunter

I can't believe it's actually happening. This is independent adulthood, this is what it feels like. Shouldn't there be some sort of ritual? In certain remote African tribes there'd be some incredible four day rites of passage ceremony involving tattooing and potent hallucinogenic drugs extracted from tree-frogs, and village elders smearing my body with monkey blood, but here,rites of passage is all about three new pairs of pants and stuffing your duvet in a bin-liner. — David Nicholls

It's the Josh Bennett equivalent of tattooing her name across my chest. — Katja Millay

The goal of tattooing was never beauty. The goal was change. From the scarified Nubian priests of 2000 B.C., to the tattooed acolytes of the Cybele cult of ancient Rome, to the moko scars of the modern Maori, humans have tattooed themselves as a way of offering up their bodies in partial sacrifice, enduring the physical pain of embellishment and emerging changed beings. Despite — Dan Brown

Adam's gaze quickly shifted from the full tattoo on my face, to the V-neck of my T-shirt and the glimpse of tattooing across my collarbone, down to my palm, which was also covered in the same filigree tattoo. "I didn't know vampyres were getting additional tattooing done. Is your artist here in Tulsa?"
I grinned. "Yeah, sometimes. But mostly she's in the Otherworld." I could see he was trying to process what I'd said, so I took the opportunity to blurt, "Hey, you said you don't have a girlfriend, but how about a boyfriend?"
"Um, no, I don't have a boyfriend, either. At least not currently." Adam glanced at Damien, who met his gaze.
/Success!/ was what I was thinking. — P.C. Cast

There is no fuckin' conclusion to us," he growled, his gaze tattooing my soul. "No end. Even death doesn't signify the severing of this. Us. Nothing's gonna do that, baby. Something as inconsequential as a visit from the grim reaper sure as shit isn't gonna keep me from you. And we both know from living in this world that death is far from final. — Anne Malcom

The act of tattooing one's skin was a tranformative declaration of power, an announcment to the world: I am in control of my own flesh. — Dan Brown

I had finally become aware of how much I was capable of, how little I had to lose, and how deep into Douglas's soft sand I had sunk. Magellan's letters, which Douglas had recited, had become part of my being. It was as if I was right there with Magellan, following every curve of his pen as he wrote down his words to his beloved ones confiding his secret. I had become the ink, and the tip was tattooing my path. I was going to follow his dream, but still, I wished I knew why. — Celma Ribeiro