In which I consider getting ink

A semi-frivolous post, because I have a few weightier posts turning over in my head, but I've been too quiet here of late...

Several of my friends from Facebook and the blogosphere were passing around links to amazing science-themed and literary tattoos over the summer.* Which got me thinking. I've been intrigued by the idea of getting a tattoo for ages. (In grad school the first time around, one of my classmates had a tattoo of a heart on her shoulder surrounded by a scroll that read "Amor Vincit Omnia." Just like Chaucer's Prioress, if the Prioress had been into tattoos instead of brooches.) But since it represents a lifelong commitment of the sort that can't be undone without leaving a scar, I've always hesitated over what kind of image I'd want to put on my skin permanently.

So, straw poll: Of the following tattoo ideas, which do you like best?

• An Edward Gorey illustration. I've considered a fantod under a glass bell, the Doubtful Guest, or possibly the Osbick Bird. I'd go for Neville who died of ennui, except I think that one would be bad luck.
• One of Leonard Baskin's Gehenna Press pressmarks, especially this one. I'm stealing this idea from a colleague at Swarthmore (hi, Anne!).**
• Something in ancient Greek, because dead languages were one of my first intellectual loves, and I think it would be neat to have, say, this fragment from Sappho, or this one, running along my arm.*** (Alternately, I could also go for Latin and choose something scabrous and filthy from Catullus. Or maybe the first stanza of Horace's Soracte Ode, which I love.)
• The opening bars of the Aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations.
• A pair of old-fashioned opera glasses, just because.
• S.R. Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science rendered in some cool-looking font.
• Something out of the work of Rene Magritte or Giorgio De Chirico, my favorite Surrealists. Maybe the girl with the hoop from Melancholy and Mystery of a Street.
• Giulio Camillo's memory theater, though I think it's probably too elaborate to be turned into a tattoo.
• Other (expound in the comments if you've got an idea).

Yes, I know: if I actually end up with any of these designs, I'll be the nerdiest tattooed lady ever. And I will wear that title with pride.

* I absolutely love the Vesalius skeleton tattoo.

** Alas, I could never top this printing-history tattoo, which manages to allude to Aldus Manutius and the Kelmscott Press as well as Baskin, and is pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen in the tattoo department.

*** I admit to being partially inspired by Willow's dream of painting Sappho's Ode to Aphrodite on Tara's back in the Season 4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Restless." My inner classics geek was thrilled that they took the effort to get the poem right.

Comments

[dale]

I vote the girl with the hoop :-) with the first fragment from sappho a close second. (I personally would feel like that fragment was too much for me to live up to, but I think you could pull it off!)

[Jill Smith]

I love Edward Gorey. And Neville is my favorite also, but I'd probably go for the Doubtful Guest.

And I really want a nose stud.

[paige]

I've thought before about getting the muted post-horn featured in The Crying of Lot 49; and also of getting 7 tiny stars tattooed in different places on my body. A former roommate of mine did the latter; I've always liked it.

I like the idea of the girl with the hoop, too.

[Amanda]

I like the 7 stars idea. Like the Pleiades, but not.

I just watched the movie Sunshine Cleaning, in which Emily Blunt's character has a little group of stars tattooed on her right hand, and a flock of stylized birds on her arm. It was a nice visual detail.