Hitchhiker's Guide tattoos

Love these (sadly unattributed) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy tattoos. Illustrating the flowerpot/whale scene is particularly poignant, as it is perhaps the most humorously existential moment in one of the great existential comedies of all time.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Tattoo (via Forbidden Planet)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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obeyken

I’m not a tattoo person, so I don’t know why I think this, but somehow it seems that people with tattoos should get a pass on attribution.
Ipo

Fun! Glad it’s not my skin though.
I believe that is how Douglas Adams would have felt too.
I’ve “talked” with him in the early h2g2 days, which btw he envisioned to become something akin to what wikipedia would eventually be.
He had great witty humor on a personal level also, not just as an author.
St_Mediocrity

I’ve been searching for a sufficiently “large but friendly” font for a “Don’t Panic” tattoo for quite a while now.
Moriarty

How would it be attributed, and why? Seems like you would either know the reference and recognize it instantly, or not know it at all, in which case “btw this is from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams” wouldn’t add anything anyway.
- Jesse M.
  
  How would it be attributed, and why?
  
  I would guess “sadly unattributed” means Cory doesn’t know the identity of the person in the photo.
Pirate Jenny

I assumed “unattributed” meant we don’t know who did the tattoo, and/or who owns it. It is pretty swell!
flatfive

I have the ‘growing wrench’ logo from the cover of Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance on my forearm. It’s not an homage and I’m not trying to pass it off as originality. It’s there as a reminder for myself, and barely a day goes by that I don’t stop to consider its meaning for me at that moment. In that sense, it’s doing exactly what I intended.

It also has sparked some interesting conversations, both with folks who know its origins and those just curious. A happy, unintended side effect.

Of course, the hot-rod style pinstriping I have on the other arm is just there because I thought it looked cool.

Love the HGTTG ink.
Jesse M.

Unattributed no more: I just did a google image search for “hitchhiker’s guide tattoo” and pretty much right away found the flickr photostream of the proud owner!
skeletoncityrepeater

I’m usually such a naysayer about posts but these are well done tattoos. The whale is a great traditional subject and ‘DON’T PANIC’ makes for a great alternative to the standard MANS RUIN or LOVE HATE you usually see. It would be good even if it had nothing to to with HGTTG. The quotations could have been more stylized..
John Farrier

One of my favorite lines from the series is Marvin’s last words in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish. When he encounters God’s Final Message to Creation, Marvin says “I think I feel good about it.” Then he dies. I wouldn’t mind (too much) a tattoo with that quote.
- emmdeeaych
  
  or a tombstone?
Anonymous

Cool. A guy that I used to work with had a tattoo of the smiley face guy sticking out his tongue from the HGTG book covers.
BigstickCarpet

Wow. I can’t believe my tattoos made it onto Boing Boing! I’m pseudo-Internet famous now! :)

There are more pics on my Flickr page, starting here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigstickcarpet/5263405279/in/photostream/
egoVirus

Ah yes, one-upsmanship meets need for attention. Another clever person in the world proves their existence…
- Tdawwg
  
  Is that anything like Debbie-Downerhood meeting a need to piss on others’ joy? Another bitter person in the world crying from the depths of their bitterness?
  - egoVirus
    
    Not at all. It’s simply a shame that homage passes for originality these days, and the need to display identity in such an overt way passes as a badge of sophistication in self expression, when in fact its meant to divide those in the know from those who are not. I picture Douglas Adams, in his British sense of good taste and good humor, feeling rather uncomfortable with being confronted by this individual who so desperately feels the impulse to advertise their individuality by virtue of copying the work of another, were he (Adams) still among us. That’s all.
    - Jesse M.
      
      Sounds like you’re criticizing a character that exists in your imagination, who got the tattoos because he’s just some kind of hipster who wants to prove how original and sophisticated he is and sneer at anyone who isn’t “in the know”. Maybe he got them because he wanted to get a tattoo anyway and was a really big fan of the books?
      - egoVirus
        
        That is of course a possibility worth consideration.
    - robulus
      
      Sounds like you’d be happier sitting down in your front room with a sweet sherry and watching an old classic like “Carry on up the Deeply Repressed Desires!”
      - egoVirus
        
        Ha ha ha! I’ll have to give that a try.
        
        I suppose the notion of “question everything” is just a bumper sticker after all…
    - emmdeeaych
      
      I imagine Douglass Adams choosing words carefully and appreciating the absurd world around him for what it can teach.
- emmdeeaych
  
  i think they’re amazing, and heartfelt.
  - happytweak
    
    They most certainly are.
    You see, my “Ferrari” (pretty pompous to think of yourself as a higher-end sports car, ioan) would get be bought, taken home, and hand-painted with groups of friends and flowing drinks. It wouldn’t be a Ferrari, it would be MY CAR. THIS is why people get tattoos. They say your body is a temple… I’ve always said, “If I had a temple, why the fuck wouldn’t I decorate and cover it with thing I loved?”.
    
    That said….
    OHMYGOD thank you, Cory! This is amazing, one of my favorite sections of a book, EVER (tied with the interview with the last-surviving wild-dog who accidentally ate the corpse of the woman that was actually God come down to Earth in Ron Currie, Jr.’s “God Is Dead”). I would love to get some sort of homage to the scene.
    - dollarama
      
      I wouldn’y say that’s pompous at all – the human body is a beautifully unique instance of the cosmos having transformed itself into a complex, harmonious and self-aware form. Damn right I’m a Ferrari.
      
      As for HGTTG, I found it pretty silly and a bit boring! Nice tats though.
ioan

Getting a tattoo is like putting a Walmart sticker on a Ferrari.
Anonymous

bowl of petunias, not a vase.
oops.
- happytweak
  
  Haha, well noticed.
Anonymous

This is probably one of the best tattoos I’ve ever seen!
Ed Frome

Sadly the first thing that entered my mind was “That looks an awful lot like Comic Sans.”