Pride and Prejudice Tattoos

You love the book, and the remakes and the soundtracks… but does anyone love it enough to have it printed on themselves for life? Apparently, yes.

Teasha Patterson  (who tweets under @TheWriteRussian) has a fantastic quote from Pride and Prejudice on her upper back:

 “She is a very headstrong foolish girl, and does not know her own interest;”
 
She has taken the time to tell us about her fabulous tattoo, and the process she went through to get it:

“I got my tattoo about five months ago, at Epic Ink in Medford, Oregon where I’d recently gotten a lip piercing. I knew I wanted to get a text tattoo, as the aspiring writer in my group of friends it was practically a given.

“The font is a special font from the shops book (I think it was called Montague, but I’m not sure) and the first “S” was designed free-hand by my artist, Melinda Kidd. Let me tell you, that “S” felt the worst! Make no mistake, getting a tattoo is painful no matter how easy other people make it look. The feeling is somewhat akin to carving things into your skin with a paring knife, not deadly pain, but not just a prick either. The noise is also pretty jarring, as is the sunburn feeling you have for a few weeks. I was told by a friend that had come along for moral support, and a tattoo of her own, that I make a cat face when the gun starts up. This, I am assuming, was probably not attractive.

“As far as the quote I’d considered movie lines, Shakespearean quotes, and lyrics before I chose the quote from Pride and Prejudice. It’s been my favorite book since I first sat down with it at the ripe old age of fourteen and the quote is one of my many favorite lines. I’ve always really loved this quote because of the meaning behind it.

“It’s being said by Mrs. Bennet about Lizzy after she turns down Mr. Collins and the fact is Lizzy is NOT being foolish. She’s turned down Mr. Collins because she doesn’t love him and this ultimately leads to her finding her soul mate in Mr. Darcy. While most people who see my tattoo probably take it at face value (You’re headstrong and foolish? And you have a tattoo that says so? That’s stupid…) I feel that it’s a strong message for me and my life. I like the thought that Pride and Prejudice will always be with me, whether or not I pursue writing, and it’s something that I’m proud to keep alive.

“At this point I don’t plan to get any more tattoos. I might get quote marks and Pride and Prejudice added on to mine, but probably not until I build up a higher pain tolerance (no more cat faces for me).”

If you want to contact Teasha, you can do so via her Xanga blog ‘FatzoToFabulous’, you can check out her YouTube Channel OfficialRussian, or you can head on over to Tumblr!

But is this one singular case?  I was compelled to search more.

Yahoo!Answers had one user asking about the appearance of a tattoo they wanted, with the line “the quote im getting is ‘you have bewitched me body and soul'” (ignoring the fact that this is only in the 2005 film, of course). Their ideas included having an image of a tree, however other suggestions included:
+”A quill/feather pen entwined with a rose”
+”A book entitled Pride and Prejudice”
+Picture of Pemberley
+Floral designs
+A heart with Darcy and Elizabeth’s initials in it.
(My personal recommendation would be to get the quote in Austen’s own handwriting.  Which reminds me, the Jane Austen font is now available and it’s gorgeous!)
I thought that perhaps this was just a random thought, one person wanting the words tattooed on them.  Wrong.  I have been seeing this idea, now that I’ve been looking, in countless forums.

In fact, literary tattoos are quite popular, and can actually be very beautiful- the website Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos has some stunning examples of what can be achieved when you combine beautiful “books, poems, lyrics, and many other literary sources” with body art.  (And really, if I was going to bother inking myself, it would probably be an allusion to Austen.)  A poll run by the Telegraph(UK) revealed that actually Sylvia Plath was particularly popular for tats.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is also a really popular one for tattoos.  In fact one girl went so far as to get her entire arm tattooed in the ‘sleeve’ style, with the PPZ cover, which hit the Internet by storm after the New Yorkian female in question posted it up to Facebook:

I’ve also seen, and attempted to contact, a few other related tattoos.  23-year-old Amanda from the US, over at ladylillianrose has a Jane Austen signature tattoo (left hand column down a bit) that I think is quite nice. 

I also really liked this one:

This was posted on the Livejournal group literary tattoos or ‘bookworms with ink’.  It’s Maggie Stader’s tatto0 that is “based off Chatsworth House, which they used in the 2005 adaptation as Pemberley. Done by Mike Ivey at Journey’s End Tattoo in Richmond, VA.”

(On a side note: Did you know that Amanda Seyfried, the cute one from Dear John, has the word ‘Minge’ aka the slang term for vagina, written on her foot?  Apparently Colin Firth told her what it meant, and it helps her to laugh all the time.  And another bit of related celeb goss- Russell Brand in 2008 said he was going to get skulls and crossbones tattooed onto his nipples, but had fears that it might “affect my other work in Jane Austen adaptations.”)  … But who would’ve thought that books and tattoos go hand in hand!

So what do we think?  Yes, no?  What would you have?