Authors with tattoos
I have considered getting a tattoo once or twice but quickly dismissed the thought each time. I’m very pale skinned so I apparently have the ideal complexion for some ink but it’s just not me. A few weeks ago, I was looking at our authors’ corner section and glanced at the Elizabeth Hand interview. She’s proudly sporting a tattoo in the picture and it got me thinking…. how many other writers have tattoos? I was sure many authors were tattooed as tattoos are pretty mainstream these days but the problem would be finding them (the authors that is, not the tats).
In the end, it was easy and here is the resulting article. We found vegan cookbook author Sarah Kramer on our doorstep in Victoria, BC, and authors who had tattoos knew plenty of other authors with tattoos and a chain reaction followed. Every author had an interesting story behind their tattoo or, in many cases, tattoos. We discovered a heart (a real pulsating heart, not the Popeye variety), a quotation, dancing stick figures, a gecko, the old Atlanta Falcons logo, a biplane and a 4X4 vehicle, and each one has a story behind it.
For my background research, I read a book called Dorothy Parker’s Elbow (Parker had a star on her elbow) - a book all about tattoos in the literary world. I discovered Sylvia Plath, Herman Melville, Franz Kafka and Ray Bradbury had all written about tattoos from a wide variety of perspectives. Clearly, there is an enduring fascination with tattoos, tattooists and tattoo parlours - even though they are now commonplace and no longer confined to rebels, sailors and truckers.