{"id":84,"date":"2016-06-22T18:07:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T18:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.digitalthoreau.org\/tsag2016\/?page_id=84"},"modified":"2016-07-10T02:05:25","modified_gmt":"2016-07-10T02:05:25","slug":"getting-inked-henry-david-thoreau-and-american-tattoo-art","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.digitalthoreau.org\/tsag2016\/friday-july-8\/getting-inked-henry-david-thoreau-and-american-tattoo-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Inked: Henry David Thoreau and American Tattoo Art"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Mark Sullivan | \u00a9 Mark Sullivan 2016<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/presentation\/d\/1R6tm6ISBFuBZ-aCqo_uoYv-3-KEaKY2s0tYW9EehUfc\/embed?start=false&#038;loop=false&#038;delayms=3000\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"389\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" mozallowfullscreen=\"true\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As many of you know, I have been looking at images of Thoreau for about a decade now. I\u2019ve studied paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs of Thoreau; and I\u2019ve examined portraits of Thoreau found on dust jackets, postage stamps, t-shirts, coffee mugs, skateboards, tote bags, watch fobs, and shop signs, to name just a few locations. I published some of my findings about this wide array of images last year, in a book called <em>Picturing Thoreau: Henry David Thoreau in American Visual Culture<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve had a chance to dip into this volume, you know that I\u2019m interested in what these images might tell us about Thoreau, but also in what they might tell us about the artists who created the images. And I\u2019m especially interested in what these portraits can tell us about our changing expectations of, or opinions of, the \u201chermit of Walden\u201d. As Americans, we have had a long love-hate relationship with Thoreau and his ideas and writings, and it is a relationship that has taken many twists and turns with each new generation of Americans. What we like or dislike about Thoreau has changed frequently over the years since the publication of <em>Walden<\/em> in 1854, but what remains constant is our fascination with Thoreau. And in recent years (i. e., the last generation or two), much of the fascination with Thoreau has been due to the multiplicity of important issues with which he was involved in his day, issues which came to a head again in the late twentieth century and are still unresolved \u2013 issues such as environmental sustainability, racial equality, and the role of government in one\u2019s personal life.<\/p>\n<p>In my book <em>Picturing Thoreau<\/em>, I demonstrated that the invocation of Thoreau (and\/or the use of his facial features) can serve handily as a way of marking out, clarifying, and legitimizing the interests or concerns of a particular group, or constituency, in American society. Because he, and his facial features, are so well-known (there are more than 1200 different images of Thoreau on \u201cGoogle Images\u201d), he is a natural choice for any group that wants to be recognized as espousing one or more of the ideas that Thoreau advocated during his short and somewhat turbulent life.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I\u2019d like to focus on how Thoreau\u2019s words and facial features have been adopted by American tattoo artists (and \u201ctattooees\u201d, as the wearers of the tattoos are called) in the last few years. I\u2019m in the early stages of my research on this subject, so I can\u2019t, and don\u2019t want to, make any grand analytical statements, but what I would like to convey, at this point, is the enthusiasm, and the wide variety of motivations, with which a large number of the younger generation is embracing Thoreau by \u201cgetting inked\u201d with tattoos of quotes from Thoreau, or with portraits of Henry David himself.<\/p>\n<p>Some of us in this room might worry that Thoreau is headed for the dustbin of history, and about to be forgotten, especially if we are witness to the moaning and gnashing of teeth that often comes from high school students who are assigned to read Thoreau\u2019s works. But there is a vibrant, little-known community of Thoreau enthusiasts out there, many of whom may not have scholarly interests, or have much of a voice in present-day society. This is a community that is fiercely dedicated to Thoreau, and which sees him as a true visionary and a role model of personal independence. They are not about to allow Thoreau be forgotten, even though they may at times quote him incorrectly.<\/p>\n<p>It is possible that this community of young people is drawn to Thoreau partly because his one recorded statement about tattoos was fairly liberal for the nineteenth century (and even for some twenty-first century readers and critics). In <em>Walden<\/em>, Thoreau writes: \u201cComparatively, tattooing is not the hideous custom which it is called. It is not barbarous merely because the printing is skin-deep and unalterable.\u201d What Thoreau meant here, I believe, is that one should look carefully at the message being conveyed in a tattoo, and not judge all tattoos out-of-hand as barbarous, simply because the art of tattooing came from a supposedly uncivilized, or \u201cother\u201d, part of the world. And a common statement by the young people who have gotten Thoreau tattoos in the last few years, is that each tattoo, and each person, should be looked at individually, rather than being judged quickly as belonging to this or that group or category.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s look at some of these tattoos from the last few years, so that you can get an idea of what I\u2019m talking about. Then we could discuss, if time permits, what significance this phenomenon might have for the future of Thoreau\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n<p>This first tattoo [Slide 2] is a very simple one, just a brief, undecorated quote from Thoreau\u2019s journals. It says: \u201cGoing from \u2013 Toward.\u201d The full quote from Thoreau reads: \u201cA Traveler! I love his title. A traveler is to be reverenced as such. His profession is the best symbol of our life. Going from \u2013 toward; it is the history of every one of us.\u201d This is a tattoo being worn by a young woman identified only as Krissy, and it was posted to a website called \u201cContrariwise: Literary Tattoos\u201d in 2010. Here is Krissy\u2019s commentary about why she got the tattoo: \u201cI\u2019ve been wanting another tattoo for a while\u2026. But while reading through some quotes I found this one. It jumped out at me and I drove straight to the shop. I didn\u2019t care about the cost, I just knew I had to have this. Currently, I work for a residential treatment facility for juveniles with dual diagnosis. It\u2019s a tough job, but I feel like I\u2019m making a difference in the world. I\u2019m always telling the youth I work with that it doesn\u2019t matter what your background is or where you\u2019re coming from, but where you\u2019re going and what you do to get there that matters\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some people in the audience may be wondering why there is a semi-colon far to the right of Krissy\u2019s tattoo. There is a semi-colon in Thoreau\u2019s original text, but in his text the semi-colon comes immediately after the word \u201ctoward\u201d. In the tattoo, Krissy is letting us know, by placing the semi-colon at a distance from the text, that there is a sub-text here. In contemporary youth culture, a semi-colon tattoo is a way of conveying to others that the tattooee has seriously contemplated suicide, but finally decided against it.<\/p>\n<p>Here is another very simple Thoreau tattoo [Slide 3], by an anonymous artist and inked on an unknown customer. It has been re-posted frequently on Pinterest, the website where anyone can post his or her favorite images. The text says: \u201cGo confidently\u201d. This, of course, is an abbreviation of the following misquotation from <em>Walden<\/em>: \u201cGo confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.\u201d The actual quote from <em>Walden<\/em> reads this way: \u201cI learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.\u201d I find this tattoo to be very interesting, even though it\u2019s a misquotation, partly because the tilt of the text itself expresses a confident motion, and partly because the simplicity of the tattoo itself actually echoes a message found in the next full sentence of <em>Walden:<\/em> \u201cIn proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The next few slides show just three of many tattoos that one can see online if he or she googles \u201cThoreau tattoos\u201d. Many younger people are clearly drawn to Thoreau\u2019s statement that \u201call good things are wild and free\u201d [Slides 4-6]. Another phrase, or \u201csound bite\u201d, that has become the subject of many tattoos, is the well-known \u201cLive deliberately\u201d, which comes from the first chapter of <em>Walden<\/em> [see Slide 7]. And a third pithy Thoreauvian phrase that has caught on among tattoo artists and tattooees, is: \u201cRather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth\u201d (also from <em>Walden<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>But these are just a few of the quotes from Thoreau that have kept tattoo artists busy in the last few years. Only slightly less popular than the above three, is the following quote: \u201cHow vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live\u201d. And look at these two very intricate tattoos, featuring the quote: \u201cAim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something\u201d [Slides 8 and 9].<\/p>\n<p>The first of these two \u201cAim above morality\u201d tattoos was posted to the Contrariwise.org website on January 10, 2014, by \u201cJen.\u201d She reports that this tattoo belongs to \u201cDamien\u201d, and that he (Damien) said of the tattoo: \u201cI love Henry David Thoreau and found this in a book called <em>Letters to a Spiritual Seeker.<\/em> It is a collection of letters that Thoreau wrote to Blake. Not sure of the font. I gave the quote to the artist and said if you have any ideas go for it. This is what he came up with and I loved it.\u201d Longtime members of the Thoreau Society will recognize this quote as coming from a letter that Thoreau wrote to Harrison Blake of Worcester, on March 27, 1848, and that the tattooee is referring to Bradley Dean\u2019s masterful 2004 edition of Thoreau\u2019s correspondence with Blake.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to show you the second \u201cAim above morality\u201d tattoo [Slide 9] partly to show how popular this phrase has become among young tattooees, but also as a way of introducing you to the many Thoreau tattoos being done these days that don\u2019t just simply quote Thoreau. In this tattoo, we see Thoreau\u2019s facial features, as well as his cabin at Walden Pond. The artist has made a magnificent portrait of Thoreau that is based on the Benjamin Maxham daguerreotype of 1856 [Slide 10]; and he also has modeled his picture of Thoreau\u2019s cabin on the most famous image of the hut in existence today, the image that appears in the earliest editions of <em>Walden.<\/em> This artist has clearly done his homework, and clearly had as much interest in Thoreau as the person receiving the tattoo. By the way, the artist here is Joe Spino, of the Rise Above Tattoo Studios in Orlando, Florida. On his website, joespino.com, one can see amazing portrait tattoos of Marilyn Monroe, Edgar Allan Poe, and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as the above Thoreau tattoo.<\/p>\n<p>The Maxham daguerreotype has inspired a host of other tattoo artists in the last few years. Here, for instance [Slide 11], is one that showed up on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tattoopinners.com\">www.tattoopinners.com<\/a> recently, with no mention of either the artist or the tattooee. The quote \u201cAny fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it,\u201d comes from Volume 14 of Thoreau\u2019s journals (written between August of 1860 and August of 1861), and no doubt reflects the feelings of the tattooee about the nature of social or political authority. And here [Slide 12] is another adaptation of the Maxham image, with the word \u201cSimplify\u201d written on either side of Thoreau. This tattoo, which is by the artist Meg Knobel of Buju Tattoo in San Diego (and can be seen on her website, <a href=\"http:\/\/megknobel.com\">http:\/\/megknobel.com<\/a>), also includes a mouse at the lower left. This mouse is no doubt a reference to Chapter 12 of <em>Walden<\/em> (the chapter entitled \u201cBrute Neighbors\u201d), in which Thoreau describes the various woodland animals with whom he lived harmoniously during his time at Walden Pond. One of these animals was a mouse that would climb up his sleeve and eat the crumbs that Thoreau provided.<\/p>\n<p>The portrayal of Thoreau as a man who knew how to work with nature, and not against it, has been widespread since at least the 1970s, when Thoreau was cast as the forerunner of the environmental movement and the progenitor of Earth Day. And the story of the mouse who lived peacefully with Thoreau at his cabin has been the subject of at least two children\u2019s books. One of those books is Bill Montague\u2019s <em>Little Mouse: The Mouse Who Lived with Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond<\/em> (Concord: The Concord Mousetrap, 1993); and another is Marilynne K. Roach and Joseph Low\u2019s <em>The Mouse and the Song<\/em> (Parents\u2019 Magazine Press, 1974). One wonders if Meg Knobel (or the client for whom she was working) read such a book in childhood.<\/p>\n<p>My personal favorite, when it comes to tattoos of Thoreau that are based on the Maxham image, is this one [Slide 13]. It appears on an unknown person\u2019s knee, and includes the following quote from Thoreau: \u201cI would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.\u201d The image comes from \u201c12 Crazy Celebrity Tattoos\u201d, a webpage on wordpress.com (posted January 16<sup>th<\/sup>, 2011). The quote comes from \u201cEconomy\u201d, the first chapter of <em>Walden<\/em>, where it is followed by this sentence: \u201cI would rather ride on earth in an ox cart, with a free circulation, than go to heaven in the fancy car of an excursion train and breathe a malaria all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I am drawn to the graceful drawing style of the tattoo artist here, and to his or her clever way of adapting the Maxham image. But I am also drawn to the quote, the meaning of which has been the subject of lively debates\/discussions among young people posting on websites such as <a href=\"http:\/\/reddit.com\">reddit.com<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/answers.yahoo.com\">answers.yahoo.com<\/a>. These postings give us a real window into what it is that attracts \u201cmillennials\u201d to Thoreau. On reddit.com, for instance, a contributor named \u201cbaconicity\u201d interprets the quote this way: \u201cHuman interaction can be nourishing when you\u2019re with those who \u2018love people and use things.\u2019 I\u2019m guessing that velvet-cushion people find it easier to love things more than people\u2026;\u201d and someone whose online name is \u201cSSSS_car_go\u201d writes: \u201cA life of luxury or one filled with many material objects and superficial people does not allow for the space to quietly contemplate\u2026. He [Thoreau] gave me the courage not to live in a house of ticky tacky trying to keep up with the Joneses, to not value a thing over my relations with people I love\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On answers.yahoo.com, contributors who were asked to interpret Thoreau\u2019s quote came up with a variety of answers. One, who goes by the screen name of \u201cAudie\u201d, wrote: It means he\u2019s a misanthrope, that he doesn\u2019t like the company of other humans\u2026.\u201d \u201cDee\u201d, however, writes: \u201cHe\u2019s pointing out the absurdity of materialism. He\u2019s basically asking why are all of you chasing this velvet cushion when there is a perfectly good pumpkin that serves the same purpose.\u201d And \u201cLily of the Valley\u201d has this to say: \u201cHe would rather be alone than be with those putting on a show for the sake of social structure. The pumpkin may be hard, but it is natural\/real.\u201d As we can see, many of these comments echo the ideas of the tattoo artists and tattooees mentioned earlier in my talk. For many millenials, Thoreau exemplifies individualism, authenticity, anti-materialism, independence, and the virtues of being non-judgmental.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the Maxham daguerreotype mentioned above, there are two other surviving portraits of Thoreau that were done during his lifetime. And each of them has been the inspiration for a host of Thoreau portrait tattoos. Here is a slide of Samuel Worcester Rowse\u2019s 1854 crayon sketch of Thoreau [Slide 14], which was executed two years before the Maxham daguerreotype. Rowse gives us a somewhat more genteel (and much younger looking) view of Thoreau, who in 1854 was 37 years old in and had just published <em>Walden.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a shoulder tattoo from about 2011 that is based on the Rowse crayon sketch [Slide 15]. It was featured in an article called \u201cTattoo Tuesday\u201d, which appeared in <em>USA TODAY<\/em> on Feb. 1, 2011. Its owner is identified as only \u201cMichael C.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The third major portrait of Thoreau that was done during his lifetime is the ambrotype photograph by E. S. Dunshee, from 1861 [Slide 16]. And here is a tattoo version of the Dunshee ambrotype, done around 2009 by the tattoo artist \u201cShorty\u201d of Creative Designs, a studio in Richmond, Virginia (and posted on fyeahtattoos.com on Dec. 8, 2009) [Slide 17]. In this case, we can see that the tattoo artist wants to be as faithful as possible to the original from which he is copying.<\/p>\n<p>Tattoos of Thoreau\u2019s cabin at Walden Pond are also quite popular these days. Here\u2019s the cabin as it looked in the earliest editions of <em>Walden<\/em> [Slide 18], and here it is in a recent tattoo [Slide 19] that is remarkably close to its source. And here (Slide 20) we have another tattoo inspired by the title page of <em>Walden<\/em>, but enhanced by a quote from \u201cHolocene\u201d, a Grammy-nominated indie folk song from 2011 by the band Bon Iver. The quote reads, \u201cAnd at once I knew I was not magnificent.\u201d Justin Vernon, front man of Bon Iver, once explained that the song \u201cis about redemption and realizing that you\u2019re worth something; that you\u2019re special and not special at the same time.\u201d Vernon, I recently discovered, has made a large number of young people aware of Thoreau in the last decade or so, by retreating to a hunting cabin, Thoreau-style, when he feels the need to re-evaluate his life and music.<\/p>\n<p>Here are two views of Thoreau\u2019s re-constructed cabin near Walden Pond (Slides 21-22). In the interior view, we can see that there are three chairs, two at the table and one at the writing desk. Thoreau is famous for writing, in <em>Walden<\/em>, that: \u201cI had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.\u201d This quote has become one of Thoreau\u2019s most popular sayings among younger Americans of today, and it is emblazoned on t-shirts, coffee cups, travel mugs, boxer shorts, keepsake boxes. and even thongs (of all things!). And here we see the three chairs tattooed on someone\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n<p>So what are we to make of this veritable wave of Thoreau tattoo art? As I mentioned at the beginning of my talk, it\u2019s too early in the process for me to have any grand theories about why this phenomenon is occurring. But it\u2019s clearly part of the general loosening of the social taboos, in recent years, against tattoos. And it\u2019s definitely part of the craze for \u201cliterary tattoos\u201d which has developed among younger Americans in the last decade or so.<\/p>\n<p>If you google the phrase \u201cThoreau tattoos\u201d on the web, you\u2019ll come up with 378,000 \u201chits\u201d in less than 2 seconds. Those of us who may be concerned that Thoreau is passing out of the national memory, need not worry. He\u2019s alive and well! Thank you very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Mark Sullivan | \u00a9 Mark Sullivan 2016 As many of you know, I have been looking at images of Thoreau for about a decade now. I\u2019ve studied paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs of Thoreau; and I\u2019ve examined portraits of Thoreau found on dust jackets, postage stamps, t-shirts, coffee mugs, skateboards, tote bags, watch fobs, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":50,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-84","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.digitalthoreau.org\/tsag2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.digitalthoreau.org\/tsag2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.digitalthoreau.org\/tsag2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.digitalthoreau.org\/tsag2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.digitalthoreau.org\/tsag2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/commons.digitalthoreau.org\/tsag2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.digitalthoreau.org\/tsag2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.digitalthoreau.org\/tsag2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}