Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

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Maragal
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Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2022 4:46 pm

Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

Post by Maragal »

Hi everyone! I will be getting my first tattoo in December and seriously considering Cohen lyrics.

I'm torn between "bless the continuous stutter of the word being made into flesh" and "when He knew for certain only drowning men could see Him, He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them"...

So - thought it would be a fun thread - what would you choose?
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LisaLCFan
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Re: Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

Post by LisaLCFan »

Maragal wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 4:51 pm Hi everyone! I will be getting my first tattoo in December and seriously considering Cohen lyrics.

I'm torn between "bless the continuous stutter of the word being made into flesh" and "when He knew for certain only drowning men could see Him, He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them"...

So - thought it would be a fun thread - what would you choose?

Wow, that's a lot of printing, especially the second one -- your first tattoo, eh? Tattoos are certainly a nice way to create a more-or-less permanent memento of something that is important to you, and although I don't know you (I see that this is your first post here), your suggestions seem to indicate that you wish to express something meaningful to you.

If you are asking which of your two suggested quotes I would choose, my answer would be "Neither". I do like tattoos, but long strings of words are not my thing when it comes to body-art: I don't want people staring at me as they try to read something scrawled across my skin.

As with pretty much everything else, a choice of tattoo is a very personal thing, and if you are willing to endure all that pain for all those words, and then be happy to have them on your skin for the rest of your life, then, by all means, go for it! You really can't go wrong with the words of Leonard Cohen (well, I wouldn't recommend getting a tattoo of any of the lyrics from "Don't Go Home With Your Hard On" -- not exactly a high-point of Leonard's poetic output).

Oh, and a piece of sage advice: if you do decide to have words tattooed onto your body, carefully proof-read the washable stencil of them on your skin before the ink is applied to be sure that there are no spelling errors, and that the location and spacing of the words are exactly as you want them, etc.. And, maybe, bring a friend along (a good one!) to have a second look, again, before any ink is injected! (And, absolutely find a good tattoo artist who will make and apply a washable stencil of the entire tattoo prior to the inking -- you don't want someone doing it free-hand!).
Maragal
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Re: Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

Post by Maragal »

Thanks for all that great advice! I'm def being careful about who I go to, and I'm having someone with me who is pretty much "tattoo savvy". This has been a long time coming! I'm getting a more conventional small tattoo and the idea of "lyrics" I'm ruminating on. It could very well be the case that once I get my smaller one (a religious symbol) I won't be able/willing to sit through having lyrics done.

I was curious as to what lyrics of LC other people would choose "if" they had to choose tattoo lyrics! I totally get many wouldn't do lyrics at all- but just for fun, what folks would choose!?
abby
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Re: Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

Post by abby »

i have two tattoos of leonard's lyrics- one from anthem down my arm & one from hallelujah on my back. the arm was done right around the time i turned thirty & in over a decade it's only become a little less fine, but the hallelujah tattoo is more or less a train wreck by anyone's standards but my own. in the years since i've gained & lost & gained so much weight & my skin hangs in a way that leaves the tattoo almost hanging also. it was done when i was 18 by a friend from art school & there are mistakes, both the tattooist's & mine. what's most interesting to me now is how i got the lyrics wrong. instead of it reading 'i heard there was a secret chord that david played & it pleased the lord but you don't really care for music do you' it reads 'i heard there was a secret chord that david played to please the lord but you don't really care for music do you.' david happened to please the lord as it's written, but i always heard it as though david were as pathetic as the narrator, who i take to be leonard of course, the you of the song being the same you as in the later treaty. in treaty the pathetic quality isn't there anymore. these days i'd much sooner get a line from treaty tattooed- 'we were broken then but now we're borderline.' or from born in chains- 'i was alone on the road & your love was so confusing.' when i was younger i favored the you as a person but now it's something else. a million years ago when i wanted everyone/anyone to love me romantically, one of those people i wanted to love me romantically told me that he valued other forms of love above the romantic & i felt let down. what a mercy to agree now.

p.s. you might look at this thread:
https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13345
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LisaLCFan
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Re: Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

Post by LisaLCFan »

abby wrote: Sat Nov 26, 2022 9:11 pm ...p.s. you might look at this thread:
https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13345
Be warned, Maragal -- there is a lot of mean-spirited verbal abuse in that thread by those who disdain people who get tattoos.

Incidentally, the reason I prefer non-linguistic representations for tattoos (i.e., symbols, images, etc.), is not only because I don't want people trying to read my tattoos, but because words can be more limited (and limiting) than symbols: words can have very specific meanings and can be applicable to very specific circumstances, feelings, points in time, etc., whereas symbols, including what they mean to a person at any given time, perhaps can be a bit more fluid. How I am, how I see myself and my life, what is important to me and why, how I feel (about anything and everything), even my beliefs, can and do change as time goes by, and, for me, a symbol or image can more easily adapt to my personal evolution, or at least not tie me down to a specific idea (or whatever) that may not resonate with me later in life, as words may be more likely to do.

By the way, I wrote the above just before I saw Abby's post, and she seems to affirm my point about using lyrics.
abby
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Re: Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

Post by abby »

Nick Cave answers fan letters in what he calls The Red Hand Files. I've attached the text of this morning's very fitting letter. I couldn't agree more.


https://www.theredhandfiles.com/do-you- ... ur-tattoo/


ISSUE #214 / NOVEMBER 2022
How do you feel when you stand before the mirror? Do you like your tattoo?
LUCA, ROME, ITALY

NICK, ANITA LANE. TATTOO DESIGNED BY TRACY PEW

I came across a photo of a very “younger” Nick Cave, a Nick Cave as you would say “not in perfect showroom condition” but one sporting quite a menacing skull and dagger tattoo. And I wondered are you still after all these years, comfortable with this tattoo?
Should I get a new tattoo?
CHRIS, SOUTHPORT, UK


Dear Luca and Chris,

I was sitting in a bar in Sydney’s red light district with Tracy Pew, the bass player in The Birthday Party. We were teenagers and drunk and we decided that we should go to the tattoo parlour across the road to get a tattoo. Now, back in those days, the only people who got tattooed on the Cross were bikers and sailors, but we took the fact that there was a parlour over the road as a kind of holy sign. I handed Tracy a beer mat and asked him to draw a skull and crossbones with a knife stuck in it, and a banner that said ANITA, who was my girlfriend at the time. We went over the road and I showed the tattooist the drawing. He was in the process of tattooing a large black swastika on the chest of some crazy fucker, but looked at the beer mat and said, “That drawing is bloody awful, mate, you’ll live to regret it.” I pointed to the guy in the chair and said, “What, and he won’t?” The tattooist said, “Fair enough’” and an hour later I walked out of the tattoo parlour with a skull and crossbones with my girlfriend’s name on it on my arm. Tracy, for reasons I will never understand, got an enormous sailing ship on his arm.

Now, nearly fifty years later, as I stand before the mirror, I would say, Luca, that the tattoo is the least of my worries. It seems to be just one part of a general emerging calamity. Having said that, I feel a sweet and teary pang as I look at the tattoo — I see that the name Anita has blurred and become unreadable, and the skull, sagging and old now, looks deranged and contemptuous. Still, I’m happy to carry this remnant of my youth with me, not just as a reminder of two of the most beautiful people who walked the earth — Anita Lane, who passed away recently, and Tracy Pew, who died not too many years after that carefree day in Sydney — but also that there was a time when I was both heroic and dumb enough to get a tattoo of a badly drawn skull with my girlfriend’s name on it. I guess I am wiser now, but that folly of youth will always go with me, and when I am finally in the ground, the grinning skull will continue to mock and jeer at all the lofty pretensions and vanities and cautions of these, my latter years.

So, should you get a tattoo, Chris? As a sage man of a mature age I would advise against it, which is why I think you should probably get one.

Love, Nick
MaraLady
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Re: Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

Post by MaraLady »

Hi everyone- I posted the original question and appreciate all the thoughtful responses. I love all your experiences!

I think maybe I was slightly misunderstood - it was meant to be a more of a fun thread of "if" - What lyrics would you choose! Not really the pros and cons of tattoos!

Poster who got lyrics wrong - the lyrics you misquoted- the words are beautiful anyway -

Mara
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LisaLCFan
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Re: Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

Post by LisaLCFan »

Since it is the end of December (and four in the... afternoon), did you go through with getting your lyrics tattooed?
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brightnow
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Re: Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

Post by brightnow »

Thanks for this reminder of The Red Hand Files, it's definitely a favorite, so many of Nick's responses (including this one) are very cohenesque...
abby wrote: Sun Nov 27, 2022 5:35 pm Nick Cave answers fan letters in what he calls The Red Hand Files. I've attached the text of this morning's very fitting letter. I couldn't agree more.


https://www.theredhandfiles.com/do-you- ... ur-tattoo/


ISSUE #214 / NOVEMBER 2022
How do you feel when you stand before the mirror? Do you like your tattoo?
LUCA, ROME, ITALY

NICK, ANITA LANE. TATTOO DESIGNED BY TRACY PEW

I came across a photo of a very “younger” Nick Cave, a Nick Cave as you would say “not in perfect showroom condition” but one sporting quite a menacing skull and dagger tattoo. And I wondered are you still after all these years, comfortable with this tattoo?
Should I get a new tattoo?
CHRIS, SOUTHPORT, UK


Dear Luca and Chris,

I was sitting in a bar in Sydney’s red light district with Tracy Pew, the bass player in The Birthday Party. We were teenagers and drunk and we decided that we should go to the tattoo parlour across the road to get a tattoo. Now, back in those days, the only people who got tattooed on the Cross were bikers and sailors, but we took the fact that there was a parlour over the road as a kind of holy sign. I handed Tracy a beer mat and asked him to draw a skull and crossbones with a knife stuck in it, and a banner that said ANITA, who was my girlfriend at the time. We went over the road and I showed the tattooist the drawing. He was in the process of tattooing a large black swastika on the chest of some crazy fucker, but looked at the beer mat and said, “That drawing is bloody awful, mate, you’ll live to regret it.” I pointed to the guy in the chair and said, “What, and he won’t?” The tattooist said, “Fair enough’” and an hour later I walked out of the tattoo parlour with a skull and crossbones with my girlfriend’s name on it on my arm. Tracy, for reasons I will never understand, got an enormous sailing ship on his arm.

Now, nearly fifty years later, as I stand before the mirror, I would say, Luca, that the tattoo is the least of my worries. It seems to be just one part of a general emerging calamity. Having said that, I feel a sweet and teary pang as I look at the tattoo — I see that the name Anita has blurred and become unreadable, and the skull, sagging and old now, looks deranged and contemptuous. Still, I’m happy to carry this remnant of my youth with me, not just as a reminder of two of the most beautiful people who walked the earth — Anita Lane, who passed away recently, and Tracy Pew, who died not too many years after that carefree day in Sydney — but also that there was a time when I was both heroic and dumb enough to get a tattoo of a badly drawn skull with my girlfriend’s name on it. I guess I am wiser now, but that folly of youth will always go with me, and when I am finally in the ground, the grinning skull will continue to mock and jeer at all the lofty pretensions and vanities and cautions of these, my latter years.

So, should you get a tattoo, Chris? As a sage man of a mature age I would advise against it, which is why I think you should probably get one.

Love, Nick
Columbia May 11, 2009; Boston May 29, 2009; Durham November 3, 2009; Las Vegas December 10 & 11, 2010; Austin November 1, 2012; Boston December 15, 2012; Brooklyn December 20, 2012
daniberkun
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Re: Tattoo with LC Lyrics...

Post by daniberkun »

Maragal wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 4:51 pm Hi everyone! I will be getting my first tattoo in December and seriously considering Cohen lyrics.

I'm torn between "bless the continuous stutter of the word being made into flesh" and "when He knew for certain only drowning men could see Him, He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them"...

So - thought it would be a fun thread - what would you choose?
I would go with "bless the continuous stutter of the word being made into flesh." It's not too long and I love the text. On which part of your body are you considering getting LC lyrics tattooed? ;-)
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