Posts tagged "tattoos"
  1. Notes: 58 / 1 month ago  from lovingsylvia (originally from naybles)
    naybles: By a mad miracle I go intactAmong the common routThronging sidewalk, street,And bickering shops;Nobody blinks a lid, gapes,Or cries that this raw fleshReeks of the butcher’s cleaver,Its heart and guts hung hookedAnd bloodied as a cow’s split frameParceled out by white-jacketed assassins.Oh no, for I strut it cleverAs a greenly escaped idiot,Buying wine, bread,Yellow-casqued chrysanthemums -Arming myself with the most reasonable itemsTo ward off, at all cost, suspicionsRoused by thorned hands, feet, head,And that great woundSquandering redFrom the flayed side.Even as my each mangled nerve-endTrills its hurt outAbove pitch of pedestrian ear,So, perhaps I, knelled dumb by your absence,Alone can hearSun’s parched scream,Every downfall and crashOf gutted star,And, more daft than any goose,This cracked world’s incessant gabble and hiss. Street Song by Sylvia Plath —written 1956

    naybles:

    By a mad miracle I go intact
    Among the common rout
    Thronging sidewalk, street,
    And bickering shops;
    Nobody blinks a lid, gapes,
    Or cries that this raw flesh
    Reeks of the butcher’s cleaver,
    Its heart and guts hung hooked
    And bloodied as a cow’s split frame
    Parceled out by white-jacketed assassins.

    Oh no, for I strut it clever
    As a greenly escaped idiot,
    Buying wine, bread,
    Yellow-casqued chrysanthemums -
    Arming myself with the most reasonable items
    To ward off, at all cost, suspicions
    Roused by thorned hands, feet, head,
    And that great wound
    Squandering red
    From the flayed side.

    Even as my each mangled nerve-end
    Trills its hurt out
    Above pitch of pedestrian ear,
    So, perhaps I, knelled dumb by your absence,
    Alone can hear
    Sun’s parched scream,
    Every downfall and crash
    Of gutted star,
    And, more daft than any goose,
    This cracked world’s incessant gabble and hiss.

    Street Song by Sylvia Plath

    —written 1956

     
  2. Notes: 183 / 1 month ago  from lovingsylvia (originally from tattoolit)
    lovingsylvia: tattoolit: One of my favorite Plath quotes… *** Lesbos Viciousness in the kitchen! The potatoes hiss. It is all Hollywood, windowless, The fluorescent light wincing on and off like a terrible migraine, Coy paper strips for doors — Stage curtains, a widow’s frizz. And I, love, am a pathological liar, And my child — look at her, face down on the floor, Little unstrung puppet, kicking to disappear — Why she is schizophrenic, Her face is red and white, a panic, You have stuck her kittens outside your window In a sort of cement well Where they crap and puke and cry and she can’t hear. You say you can’t stand her, The bastard’s a girl. You who have blown your tubes like a bad radio Clear of voices and history, the staticky Noise of the new. You say I should drown the kittens. Their smell! You say I should drown my girl. She’ll cut her throat at ten if she’s mad at two. The baby smiles, fat snail, From the polished lozenges of orange linoleum. You could eat him. He’s a boy. You say your husband is just no good to you. His Jew-Mama guards his sweet sex like a pearl. You have one baby, I have two. I should sit on a rock off Cornwall and comb my hair. I should wear tiger pants, I should have an affair. We should meet in another life, we should meet in air, Me and you. Meanwhile there’s a stink of fat and baby crap. I’m doped and thick from my last sleeping pill. The smog of cooking, the smog of hell Floats our heads, two venemous opposites, Our bones, our hair. I call you Orphan, orphan. You are ill. The sun gives you ulcers, the wind gives you T.B. Once you were beautiful. In New York, in Hollywood, the men said: ‘Through? Gee baby, you are rare.’ You acted, acted for the thrill. The impotent husband slumps out for a coffee. I try to keep him in, An old pole for the lightning, The acid baths, the skyfuls off of you. He lumps it down the plastic cobbled hill, Flogged trolley. The sparks are blue. The blue sparks spill, Splitting like quartz into a million bits. O jewel! O valuable! That night the moon Dragged its blood bag, sick Animal Up over the harbor lights. And then grew normal, Hard and apart and white. The scale-sheen on the sand scared me to death. We kept picking up handfuls, loving it, Working it like dough, a mulatto body, The silk grits. A dog picked up your doggy husband. He went on. Now I am silent, hate Up to my neck, Thick, thick. I do not speak. I am packing the hard potatoes like good clothes, I am packing the babies, I am packing the sick cats. O vase of acid, It is love you are full of. You know who you hate. He is hugging his ball and chain down by the gate That opens to the sea Where it drives in, white and black, Then spews it back. Every day you fill him with soul-stuff, like a pitcher. You are so exhausted. Your voice my ear-ring, Flapping and sucking, blood-loving bat. That is that. That is that. You peer from the door, Sad hag. ‘Every woman’s a whore. I can’t communicate.’ I see your cute décor Close on you like the fist of a baby Or an anemone, that sea Sweetheart, that kleptomaniac. I am still raw. I say I may be back. You know what lies are for. Even in your Zen heaven we shan’t meet. —written 16 October 1962

    lovingsylvia:

    tattoolit:

    One of my favorite Plath quotes…

    ***

    Lesbos

    Viciousness in the kitchen!
    The potatoes hiss.
    It is all Hollywood, windowless,
    The fluorescent light wincing on and off like a terrible migraine,
    Coy paper strips for doors —
    Stage curtains, a widow’s frizz.
    And I, love, am a pathological liar,
    And my child — look at her, face down on the floor,
    Little unstrung puppet, kicking to disappear —
    Why she is schizophrenic,
    Her face is red and white, a panic,
    You have stuck her kittens outside your window
    In a sort of cement well
    Where they crap and puke and cry and she can’t hear.
    You say you can’t stand her,
    The bastard’s a girl.
    You who have blown your tubes like a bad radio
    Clear of voices and history, the staticky
    Noise of the new.
    You say I should drown the kittens. Their smell!
    You say I should drown my girl.
    She’ll cut her throat at ten if she’s mad at two.
    The baby smiles, fat snail,
    From the polished lozenges of orange linoleum.
    You could eat him. He’s a boy.
    You say your husband is just no good to you.
    His Jew-Mama guards his sweet sex like a pearl.
    You have one baby, I have two.
    I should sit on a rock off Cornwall and comb my hair.
    I should wear tiger pants, I should have an affair.
    We should meet in another life, we should meet in air,
    Me and you.

    Meanwhile there’s a stink of fat and baby crap.
    I’m doped and thick from my last sleeping pill.
    The smog of cooking, the smog of hell
    Floats our heads, two venemous opposites,
    Our bones, our hair.
    I call you Orphan, orphan. You are ill.
    The sun gives you ulcers, the wind gives you T.B.
    Once you were beautiful.
    In New York, in Hollywood, the men said: ‘Through?
    Gee baby, you are rare.’
    You acted, acted for the thrill.
    The impotent husband slumps out for a coffee.
    I try to keep him in,
    An old pole for the lightning,
    The acid baths, the skyfuls off of you.
    He lumps it down the plastic cobbled hill,
    Flogged trolley. The sparks are blue.
    The blue sparks spill,
    Splitting like quartz into a million bits.

    O jewel! O valuable!
    That night the moon
    Dragged its blood bag, sick
    Animal
    Up over the harbor lights.
    And then grew normal,
    Hard and apart and white.
    The scale-sheen on the sand scared me to death.
    We kept picking up handfuls, loving it,
    Working it like dough, a mulatto body,
    The silk grits.
    A dog picked up your doggy husband. He went on.

    Now I am silent, hate
    Up to my neck,
    Thick, thick.
    I do not speak.
    I am packing the hard potatoes like good clothes,
    I am packing the babies,
    I am packing the sick cats.
    O vase of acid,
    It is love you are full of. You know who you hate.
    He is hugging his ball and chain down by the gate
    That opens to the sea
    Where it drives in, white and black,
    Then spews it back.
    Every day you fill him with soul-stuff, like a pitcher.
    You are so exhausted.
    Your voice my ear-ring,
    Flapping and sucking, blood-loving bat.
    That is that. That is that.
    You peer from the door,
    Sad hag. ‘Every woman’s a whore.
    I can’t communicate.’

    I see your cute décor
    Close on you like the fist of a baby
    Or an anemone, that sea
    Sweetheart, that kleptomaniac.
    I am still raw.
    I say I may be back.
    You know what lies are for.

    Even in your Zen heaven we shan’t meet.

    —written 16 October 1962

     
  3. Notes: 143 / 1 month ago  from lovingsylvia (originally from cannibalancing)
    lovingsylvia: cannibalancing: “I do not fear it: I have been there.” - Elm by Sylvia Plath  *** Elm I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root; It is what you fear. I do not fear it: I have been there. Is it the sea you hear in me, Its dissatisfactions? Or the voice of nothing, that was you madness? Love is a shadow. How you lie and cry after it. Listen: these are its hooves: it has gone off, like a horse. All night I shall gallup thus, impetuously, Till your head is a stone, your pillow a little turf, Echoing, echoing. Or shall I bring you the sound of poisons? This is rain now, the big hush. And this is the fruit of it: tin white, like arsenic. I have suffered the atrocity of sunsets. Scorched to the root My red filaments burn and stand,a hand of wires. Now I break up in pieces that fly about like clubs. A wind of such violence Will tolerate no bystanding: I must shriek. The moon, also, is merciless: she would drag me Cruelly, being barren. Her radience scathes me. Or perhaps I have caught her. I let her go. I let her go Diminshed and flat, as after radical surgery. How your bad dreams possess and endow me. I am inhabited by a cry. Nightly it flaps out Looking, with its hooks, for something to love. I am terrified by this dark thing That sleeps in me; All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity. Clouds pass and disperse. Are those the faces of love, those pale irretrevables? Is it for such I agitate my heart? I am incapable of more knowledge. What is this, this face So murderous in its strangle of branches?— Its snaky acids kiss. It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults That kill, that kill, that kill. —written 19 April 1962

    lovingsylvia:

    cannibalancing:

    “I do not fear it: I have been there.” - Elm by Sylvia Plath

     ***

    Elm

    I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root;
    It is what you fear.
    I do not fear it: I have been there.

    Is it the sea you hear in me,
    Its dissatisfactions?
    Or the voice of nothing, that was you madness?

    Love is a shadow.
    How you lie and cry after it.
    Listen: these are its hooves: it has gone off, like a horse.

    All night I shall gallup thus, impetuously,
    Till your head is a stone, your pillow a little turf,
    Echoing, echoing.

    Or shall I bring you the sound of poisons?
    This is rain now, the big hush.
    And this is the fruit of it: tin white, like arsenic.

    I have suffered the atrocity of sunsets.
    Scorched to the root
    My red filaments burn and stand,a hand of wires.

    Now I break up in pieces that fly about like clubs.
    A wind of such violence
    Will tolerate no bystanding: I must shriek.

    The moon, also, is merciless: she would drag me
    Cruelly, being barren.
    Her radience scathes me. Or perhaps I have caught her.

    I let her go. I let her go
    Diminshed and flat, as after radical surgery.
    How your bad dreams possess and endow me.

    I am inhabited by a cry.
    Nightly it flaps out
    Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.

    I am terrified by this dark thing
    That sleeps in me;
    All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.

    Clouds pass and disperse.
    Are those the faces of love, those pale irretrevables?
    Is it for such I agitate my heart?

    I am incapable of more knowledge.
    What is this, this face
    So murderous in its strangle of branches?—

    Its snaky acids kiss.
    It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults
    That kill, that kill, that kill.

    —written 19 April 1962

     
  4. Notes: 13 / 1 month ago  from wanstar
    The Arrival of the Bee Box I ordered this, clean wood box Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift. I would say it was the coffin of a midget Or a square baby Were there not such a din in it. The box is locked, it is dangerous. I have to live with it overnight And I can’t keep away from it. There are no windows, so I can’t see what is in there. There is only a little grid, no exit. I put my eye to the grid. It is dark, dark, With the swarmy feeling of African hands Minute and shrunk for export, Black on black, angrily clambering. How can I let them out? It is the noise that appalls me most of all, The unintelligible syllables. It is like a Roman mob, Small, taken one by one, but my god, together! I lay my ear to furious Latin. I am not a Caesar. I have simply ordered a box of maniacs. They can be sent back. They can die, I need feed them nothing, I am the owner. I wonder how hungry they are. I wonder if they would forget me If I just undid the locks and stood back and turned into a tree. There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades, And the petticoats of the cherry. They might ignore me immediately In my moon suit and funeral veil. I am no source of honey So why should they turn on me? Tomorrow I will be sweet God, I will set them free. The box is only temporary. —written 4 October 1962

    The Arrival of the Bee Box

    I ordered this, clean wood box
    Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift.
    I would say it was the coffin of a midget
    Or a square baby
    Were there not such a din in it.

    The box is locked, it is dangerous.
    I have to live with it overnight
    And I can’t keep away from it.
    There are no windows, so I can’t see what is in there.
    There is only a little grid, no exit.

    I put my eye to the grid.
    It is dark, dark,
    With the swarmy feeling of African hands
    Minute and shrunk for export,
    Black on black, angrily clambering.

    How can I let them out?
    It is the noise that appalls me most of all,
    The unintelligible syllables.
    It is like a Roman mob,
    Small, taken one by one, but my god, together!

    I lay my ear to furious Latin.
    I am not a Caesar.
    I have simply ordered a box of maniacs.
    They can be sent back.
    They can die, I need feed them nothing, I am the owner.

    I wonder how hungry they are.
    I wonder if they would forget me
    If I just undid the locks and stood back and turned into a tree.
    There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades,
    And the petticoats of the cherry.

    They might ignore me immediately
    In my moon suit and funeral veil.
    I am no source of honey
    So why should they turn on me?
    Tomorrow I will be sweet God, I will set them free.

    The box is only temporary.

    —written 4 October 1962

     
  5. Notes: 60 / 2 months ago  from mirrors-images
    mirrors-images: “I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”

    mirrors-images:

    “I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”

     
  6. Notes: 8 / 6 months ago  from ladywilde-

    the closest I’ll come to showing my boobs

    ladywilde-:

    to show off my Sylvia Plath tattoo. 

    Read More

  7. Notes: 10 / 1 year ago  from sometimesfiction
     
  8. Notes: 68 / 1 year ago 
    via ecstatic and insatiate @ Flickr “i am i am i am my sylvia plath mantra, permanently inked above the bray of my heart”

    via ecstatic and insatiate @ Flickr

    “i am i am i am

    my sylvia plath mantra, permanently inked above the bray of my heart”

     
  9. Notes: 698 / 1 year ago  from fuckyeahtattoos
    fuckyeahtattoos: While based on a book, this is a recovery tattoo. I read The Bell Jar for the first time right around when I started treatment for anorexia in high school, and it was a book I could really relate to. I fell in love with the quote, “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart:  I am, I am, I am. “ and I knew I wanted to incorporate it into a tattoo at some point. I chose the handwriting of my dad, my mom, and my boyfriend because they were (and are) all very important in my journey of recovery. Not that they were the only people…but there was only room for 3.  I went back and forth for over a year about what to get with the quote, but finally settled on a fig. In The Bell Jar, there is a part where she says, “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.  From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked.  One fig was a husband and a happy home and children…and another fig was a brilliant professor…and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America…I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose.” So to me, the fig represents the path of life I have chosen. It was done by Dana Powell at Ink Junkeez Tattoos in White Plains, Maryland.   love-love-hereweare.tumblr.com  I L♥VE THE FIG!!!!!!

    fuckyeahtattoos:

    While based on a book, this is a recovery tattoo. I read The Bell Jar for the first time right around when I started treatment for anorexia in high school, and it was a book I could really relate to. I fell in love with the quote, “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart:  I am, I am, I am. “ and I knew I wanted to incorporate it into a tattoo at some point. I chose the handwriting of my dad, my mom, and my boyfriend because they were (and are) all very important in my journey of recovery. Not that they were the only people…but there was only room for 3. 

    I went back and forth for over a year about what to get with the quote, but finally settled on a fig. In The Bell Jar, there is a part where she says, “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.  From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked.  One fig was a husband and a happy home and children…and another fig was a brilliant professor…and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America…I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose.” So to me, the fig represents the path of life I have chosen.

    It was done by Dana Powell at Ink Junkeez Tattoos in White Plains, Maryland.

     

    love-love-hereweare.tumblr.com

     I L♥VE THE FIG!!!!!!

     
  10. Notes: 521 / 1 year ago  from fuckyeahtattoos
    fuckyeahtattoos: This is my fifth tattoo, first submission.  It says “I am, I am, I am” and is a reference to The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath.  At one point, she refers to her heartbeat as sounding like “I am, I am, I am.”  I’ve struggled with chemical depression throughout my life, and really connected with Ester’s struggle in the novel.  I got this bad boy at Renaissance Tattoo in Buffalo NY

    fuckyeahtattoos:

    This is my fifth tattoo, first submission.  It says “I am, I am, I am” and is a reference to The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath.  At one point, she refers to her heartbeat as sounding like “I am, I am, I am.”  I’ve struggled with chemical depression throughout my life, and really connected with Ester’s struggle in the novel.  I got this bad boy at Renaissance Tattoo in Buffalo NY

     
avatar_128
 
 
This blog is a spin-off from my main blog http://lovingsylvia.tumblr.com/

Here, I want to collect all the Sylvia Plath tattoos, that I will be also posting on "Loving Sylvia", but I thought it would be cool to have an overview of them in one place, since I realized that some people might be only interested in the literary tattoos and not in other Sylvia stuff. :)

Have fun and get inspired! ;)
 
 

Tumblr