Brian's Literary Chest Tattoo

The weather here in New York has been turning autumnal and visible tattoos have been disappearing from the streets, but fear not, Readers, we still have material to get us through the end of the year, thanks to a backlog of photos from the summer!<br /> <br /> Case in  point is this tattoo from Brian:<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0DTC-KjL_OtqueaOTzAIgbcfUFwm22VV2DpNbyXt8CJsq5qJbbGdZm_7pj5r7DaNgInfgqVUBT2EY2R01DcNxxrwwCxvGc44kp3z2CaTIgFyXrOw8W5l_0uNFo5Zr7i9piI916-O9XRE/s1600/incomplete+imperfect.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0DTC-KjL_OtqueaOTzAIgbcfUFwm22VV2DpNbyXt8CJsq5qJbbGdZm_7pj5r7DaNgInfgqVUBT2EY2R01DcNxxrwwCxvGc44kp3z2CaTIgFyXrOw8W5l_0uNFo5Zr7i9piI916-O9XRE/s400/incomplete+imperfect.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <br /> <br /> I met Brian at a drugstore in Bay Ridge, back in the beginning of August. He told me he had just started working as an apprentice at A-List Industry Tattoos, a few blocks away.<br /> <br /> At the time, Brian had seven tattoos, including this chest piece, which is comprised of two parts.<br /> <br /> The top section reads "Incomplete - Imperfect" and is an allusion to lines from Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club: <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq">"<span style="font-family: georgia,bookman old style,palatino linotype,book antiqua,palatino,trebuchet ms,helvetica,garamond,sans-serif,arial,verdana,avante garde,century gothic,comic sans ms,times,times new roman,serif;">May I never be complete.  May I never be content.  May I never be perfect.  Deliver me, Tyler, from being perfect and complete."</span></blockquote>Brian credited this piece to Paul Ilardi, the owner at Monster Tattoos on Staten Island.<br /> <br /> The bottom section of the tattoo features a banner that reads "Death steals everything but out stories."<br /> <br /> Brian explained that he took this to mean that "what outlives us is the memories we have, the stories we have".<br /> <br /> It's actually the final line in a short poem by Jim Harrison:<br /> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span>

Brian's Literary Chest Tattoo

The weather here in New York has been turning autumnal and visible tattoos have been disappearing from the streets, but fear not, Readers, w...

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