Caitlin's Faulknerian Tattoo and Language

This past summer, while attending the 2nd Annual <a href="http://poetrysocietyny.org/new-york-city-poetry-festival/info-for-this-year/">New York City Poetry Festival</a> on <a href="http://www.govisland.com/html/home/home.shtml">Governor's Island</a>, I saw a lot of great ink. I have a soft spot for word tattoos, and was drawn to this one, on the back of Caitlin:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_9inIF_D2Gwot8sQMRDpImXxtQY4Ax0WDJy-0-M26Qlj5tP4XGy9JaXDwRHMpDOWzFhgtu7j8VR-3YCz-YKc-6ZblnGDovyaQd-9wWboeKU78zbpOJgVIuwVsI2qfwfmLmZOKvKFH_SE/s775/photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_9inIF_D2Gwot8sQMRDpImXxtQY4Ax0WDJy-0-M26Qlj5tP4XGy9JaXDwRHMpDOWzFhgtu7j8VR-3YCz-YKc-6ZblnGDovyaQd-9wWboeKU78zbpOJgVIuwVsI2qfwfmLmZOKvKFH_SE/s400/photo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />This reads, in Latin, "Et ego in Arcadia."<br /><br />"It's actually grammatically incorrect, but it's as it appears in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner">Faulkner</a> novel [<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_and_the_Fury">The Sound and the Fury</a></i>] ... something <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Compson">Quentin's</a> father says to him," Caitlin told me. "And," she added, "he says it with that wording, but it's really supposed to be <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_in_Arcadia_ego">Et in Arcadio ego</a></i>."<br /><br />Loosely interpreted, she understands it to mean "I am even in paradise."<br /><br />When I asked her why she had that phrase tattooed on her, Caitlin elaborated:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"It's difficult to say ... I just think, reading Faulkner, when I was a teenager was sort of the first time that I realized what language could do. I thought ... it had certain constraints ... that is part of why I chose the saying from the Faulkner novel, I also liked the idea that ... language is fluid, there aren't really rules to it. We're changing language every day ... It's sort of comforting, walking around New York City and you see, like, all of these signs and they have grammatical errors in them ... it's sort of comforting to think of language as this living, breathing thing."</blockquote>She had this done at <a href="http://whiterabbittattoostudio.com/home.html">White Rabbit Tattoo Studio</a> in the East Village.<br /><br />Thanks to Caitlin for sharing this literary tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!<br /><br /><b id="internal-source-marker_0.12905310187488794" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit</span><a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://tattoosday.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.</span></span></b>

Caitlin's Faulknerian Tattoo and Language

This past summer, while attending the 2nd Annual New York City Poetry Festival on Governor's Island , I saw a lot of great ink. I have ...

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A Chance Encounter with an Amazing Artist (with Brando and Lady Day)

I was getting off of the subway at Bryant Park last June when I spotted <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlon_Brando">Marlon Brando</a>:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHOb7VCba-5haqDV6ZU5amCRtAmDvW04P0jQLLOOkTLo-f_-lwdQFG5JHX0lKay77wrQjaydofTtayaKb0pQJHF50CLQcbUJ_niOhv9U7AayCJ8y2ZqreQkaMUiojRUDryL9J3UHyqxqw/s615/photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHOb7VCba-5haqDV6ZU5amCRtAmDvW04P0jQLLOOkTLo-f_-lwdQFG5JHX0lKay77wrQjaydofTtayaKb0pQJHF50CLQcbUJ_niOhv9U7AayCJ8y2ZqreQkaMUiojRUDryL9J3UHyqxqw/s640/photo.jpg" width="322" /></a></div><br />This amazing portrait graces the arm of <a href="http://www.daviniatattoo.com/Davinia/Home.html">Davinia Do Santo</a>, a tattoo artist from Spain who was visiting New York City and doing a guest spot at <a href="http://whiterabbittattoostudio.com/home.html">White Rabbit Tattoo</a> in the East Village.<br /><br />She credits this portrait of Marlon Brando to <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.xavitattoo.com/links/?lang=en">Xavi <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">García </span>Boix</a>, another artist from Valencia, Spain. This iconic image is of a young Brando in the film <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_One">The Wild One</a></i>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.american-vintage.net/picsx/1444b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.american-vintage.net/picsx/1444b.jpg" width="304" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I stopped Davinia, she wasn't alone. Another young woman was accompanying her, and Davinia permitted me to photograph this tattoo, which she had done:</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsIaqumRHbjm9NOVunBb1bwoI4G15MmJBsJYDT3U8rfOweP-8BAVFQAJbpKycSV21MS49ZR3IIxYrfJPrehps_257WbjQTls6dbl8rEOGidhVePZL0HB8XriI2PjjlYLYNG0kBPjnld-8/s614/photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsIaqumRHbjm9NOVunBb1bwoI4G15MmJBsJYDT3U8rfOweP-8BAVFQAJbpKycSV21MS49ZR3IIxYrfJPrehps_257WbjQTls6dbl8rEOGidhVePZL0HB8XriI2PjjlYLYNG0kBPjnld-8/s1600/photo.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's the legendary <a href="http://www.billieholiday.com/">Billie Holiday</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">You can check out more of Davinia's amazing work on her website <a href="http://www.daviniatattoo.com/Davinia/Home.html">here</a> or on her Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/DAVINIA-DO-SANTO-TATTOO/82118836548">here</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Muchas gracias</i> to Davinia Do Santo for sharing her work with us here on Tattoosday!</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.592736950609833" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit</span><a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://tattoosday.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.</span></span></b>

A Chance Encounter with an Amazing Artist (with Brando and Lady Day)

I was getting off of the subway at Bryant Park last June when I spotted Marlon Brando : This amazing portrait graces the arm of Davinia Do S...

Read more »