A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

Nothing Shall Turn Me


My my, how cultured we are this evening! First Dali, and now this poem by Edgar Allen Poe, “From Childhood’s Hour,” as worn by SeamlessKameleon. I think in big text pieces like this, the letters should either be identical or look like neat, natural writing; this falls nicely in the latter category for me.

(Tattoo by Cherri at Lovedog in Santa Cruz, California.)

See more in Lettering Tattoos (Tattoos)

Comments

56 responses to “Nothing Shall Turn Me”

  1. Vombie Avatar
    Vombie

    NOOOOO COMIC SANS

  2. Jordan Ginsberg Avatar
    Jordan Ginsberg

    Hahaha, that’s not quite Comic Sans, is it?

  3. Neurosis Avatar
    Neurosis

    Haha, thats fuckin’ huge!

  4. riki Avatar
    riki

    that text+that peom=fail

  5. rachel Avatar
    rachel

    way, way, way too close to comic sans….

  6. Laura Avatar
    Laura

    The poem is actually called “Alone”

  7. Voodoo Avatar
    Voodoo

    I live the poem, and for that much lettering… at least she picked a good spot…

  8. lisa Avatar
    lisa

    Green Carnation – Alone. Great version of this in wonderful musical format.

  9. inkfaery Avatar
    inkfaery

    i was told by a tattoo artist that i couldn’t get big blocks of text like this as it would eventually run together or something…. is that true? I was bummed

  10. chris Avatar
    chris

    at least its well executed, even if im not a fan of giant walls of text. looks clean

  11. s.k. Avatar
    s.k.

    it’s called “Alone” 🙂

  12. ImmureME Avatar

    missionary would be so damn distracting…

  13. JohnnyThief Avatar

    Whatever happened to ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’?

    Glad Michalangelo wasn’t born one of today’s ‘artists’, all we’d have is a bunch of scribbling,… UGH.

  14. steven kelly Avatar
    steven kelly

    inkfaery, i wonder the same thing. if her body changes due to children etc if it would destroy the text. it would be interesting to see someone get say a news article or the entire body done up in text.

    still, a great piece. i’m sure it was fun to tattoo as much as it was to get tattood.

  15. Diva Avatar
    Diva

    I love that poem so much!

    Large blocks of text look amazing.

    I’m not a fan of the lettering, but at least it is neat.

  16. phaseviii Avatar

    Oh noooo. Comic Sans? I can’t stand the font choice. 🙁

  17. Jessestar Avatar

    Yay for kelley on modblog

  18. melanie Avatar
    melanie

    comic sans? … really? -.-

  19. fudgenugget Avatar
    fudgenugget

    If not exactly Comic Sans, at least tragically close to it. Some nice flowing script would have been so much better. Oh well, at least it’s readable, unlike all the tattoos with all caps gothic lettering.

  20. Viking's Valkyrie Avatar

    Love the poem and I actually rather like the font choice. I think it looks almost child like, innocent in a way and unpretentious. Which is good for a piece that runs the risk of looking overly pretentious and self important. I really like it a lot.

  21. mrsrayray Avatar

    That was my favorite poem when I was a teen. I had it memorized and used to write it all over everything.

    Great choice!

    A good thing about the font is that it’s extremely easy to read…. 🙂

  22. rosemary Avatar
    rosemary

    thats fucking ugly. not a fan

  23. Dennis Avatar
    Dennis

    Is it “The red cliff of the mountain” or is it supposed to be “The red cliff or the mountain”?

    Interesting tattoo!

  24. blackroses Avatar

    @ Dennis: “the red cliff of the mountain”

    i like it!

  25. terez Avatar
    terez

    why??? why comic sans???

  26. HELLS_MoNkEY Avatar

    I like the font. I don’t like squigly fancy shit that you have to squint at for 5 hours to read.

  27. dead_filmaker Avatar
    dead_filmaker

    i think all you people need to get the fuck off of 4chan an realize that the tet i suppose to look almost child like and is supposed to be redable i think Viking Valkyrie is one of the only people here that gets it

  28. Brittney Avatar
    Brittney

    MARRY ME!!!!
    – I have the first line tattooed on my back!!

    😀

  29. Gem Avatar
    Gem

    Nicely done but there’s never a good reason to use comic sans. Ever.

  30. Chantale Avatar
    Chantale

    That’s always been one of my favorite’s of Poe’s work. I do agree that the font suits it because it makes it seem innocent yet for such long text, I think another font would have suited it better.

    Otherwise, it looks great.

  31. inkfink Avatar
    inkfink

    what a mess of a tattoo.

    so badly executed and thought out, completely RUINS this girls body

  32. Hamish Avatar
    Hamish

    Comic Sans…all over your body…dear lord.

  33. tatgirl Avatar
    tatgirl

    deeply emotional and yet so child like and innocent. gives me a deep warm feeling. I really love it !!
    I really feel sorry for some of the comments above, some people just did not get it.
    Dear SeamlessKameleon, wear it with pride, it is so great !!!

  34. emi Avatar
    emi

    sorry, i hate this. its a nice poem n all, and im sure she had a great reason behind it, but bottom line is that its not really aesthetically pleasing….

    cant wait till she has kids!

  35. Peepoo Avatar
    Peepoo

    What, no boobies showing?

  36. Nikki Avatar

    Althought I do not like this tattoo, and I hate, HATE large amounts of lettering like this, especially on ones side (as I like to say, its a waste of valuable realstate, imo), I must give props to the fact that it is neatly written (as can be on a side torso) and it is legible, and will continue to be legible for years to come.

    The most common mistake is so simple, its always too small.

    I can see the consult of this tattoo now :

    Customer: ” I want to get some lettering”

    “Artist: “Okay, great, what would you like to get?”

    C: “This paragrah”

    A: “No, you cant, it would be too small, it wont look good after a short amount of time. You would have to do that pretty big.”

    C: “Well, I really want it. so, how big are we talking?”

    A “Like, Backpiece big, or like Panel big.”

    C: “Okay.. Lets do it.”

    *artist is happy atleast 1/100 clients understand this*

  37. Rory Avatar
    Rory

    Most text-ellent.

  38. s.k. Avatar
    s.k.

    haha, thanks alex. words right outta my mouth.

    and who says everyone in this overpopulated disgusting world wants to have kids anyway?

    i happen to really LIKE my body, especially after my piercings and tattoos. i appreciate everyone’s opinions though.

  39. HereKittyKitty Avatar
    HereKittyKitty

    I like it the tattoo. And assuming every female has the need to breed is pretty lame. Tattooed skin is vulnerable to many different factors (sun exposure, weight fluctuation, accidents, surgeries, age, flying alien hedgehogs) so is any ink truely safe?

  40. The sky conspires to swallow me. Avatar
    The sky conspires to swallow me.

    I love this poem. Personally not fond of the lettering choice, but I don’t agree with those calling for script – that would just make it look too pretentious. I just really, really hate Comic Sans or anything that appears even remotely close to it.
    But I adore pure text tattoos. They’re just so intriguing, since tattoos are traditionally images, or text and images combined.

  41. Marta Avatar
    Marta

    The text is too busy in my opinion, i like when ppl keep it short. Not a fan of the font but whatever floats her boat 🙂

  42. TKO Avatar
    TKO

    boring.
    enjoy having a black blob on your stomach later.

  43. j Avatar
    j

    she must have typed out the text in Word. those capitals at the beginning of every line look so wrong.

  44. Tsarin Avatar
    Tsarin

    thou shall not adorn your bodies with walls of text

    cheesus rice has spoken

  45. iva Avatar
    iva

    i don’t really care for the font but i feel that any font should be uniform. i hate when i see script tats with the same letters repeated but none of them look the same. every ”e” is different etc. a friend recently got a small text tattoo on her arm and its in script, it has two e’s in it and one has a giant ”e” loop and the other you can barely tell there IS a loop!

    why is it that some tattoo artists do freehand if they can’t make it uniform? it looks like someone took a sharpie and just wrote on a person :/

    i’d like to get text someday but fear that i’d have the same problem, and i wouldn’t want to seem rude like ”hey can you tattoo script uniformly so it’s not all messed up?’ haha.

    🙁

  46. Queequeg Avatar
    Queequeg

    • 100% PURE HATE FOR COMIC SANS! (Or, anything that looks like it.) = FAIL
    • Text is center-justified, making the paragraph look sloppy = FAIL
    • This will bleed and look like shit in 5 years = FAIL

    With a big block of text like this, I’d think you’d want to format it in a word processor and get the artist a printout to trace rather than have them do it freehand. I can’t think of many large chunks of text I’d like to get tattooed with, but if I were to do it, it would be in (at least) 48 point Helvetica, bold, or HelveticaNeue Black, double spaced and left-justified. That center-justified text is *almost* worse than the font, but not quite.

  47. OhGollyGee Avatar
    OhGollyGee

    I like the poem. Not to fond of the placement or the font. But it’s a good idea…

  48. j Avatar
    j

    at #46: large blocks of text set in Helvetica are a big no-no. It just doesn’t read well. not that i like comic sans, hell no! every typographer’s biggest nightmare.

  49. hailstorm1375 Avatar
    hailstorm1375

    When she’s on the beach I wonder if ppl stop her and ask to read it…..wouldn’t it be awkward. I mean you can’t chit chat cause they’re reading and you may cause them to lose their spot, and then they have to start again! But I do think it’s cool, I guess she could just tell ppl to piss off!

  50. JP Avatar
    JP

    LOL @ comic sans.

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