So I'm sticking with this title "Cogito Chuck Robbins" because I like the way it sounds. So there. It will all make sense eventually.
I met Chris outside of Penn Station one Friday afternoon, intrigued by his forearm tattoo:
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"Cogito ergo sum" is a Latin phrase that means, in English, "I think, therefore, I am." It is attributed to the 17th Century French philosopher René Descartes.
This was the first of Chris' three tattoos. He is a philosophy and creative writing major at SUNY New Paltz. This phrase is the "missing link in a belief system," or, in his words, "what I always knew, but never knew".
The tattoo was done at a shop in East Meadow, New York.
Chris also has this dead bird near his right elbow:
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Inked at Skin Deep Tattoo in Levittown, this is inspired by the art on the cover of Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby.
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And Chris' third tattoo is based on the cover art from one of my favorite authors, Tom Robbins:
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This echoes the front of the great book Still Life With Woodpecker, which has made many people a fan of the writer.
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The piece, which was inked by Mike Vlad at Triple X Tattoo in Manhattan, is a subtle nod in appreciation of Robbins and his great book. Work from Triple X has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.
If you like these pieces, and are a fan of literary tattoos, you should certainly check out Contrariwise, a site dedicated solely to contributors' literary ink.
A hearty thanks to Chris for sharing his tattoos with us here on our site!