Tattooed Librarians & Archivists

Your position title or student status:  Library Director

Type of repository/collection you work in: Small rural public library

General location:  Western Pennsylvania

Background information about your tattoos if you feel comfortable getting personal about them:  Most of my tattoos pertain to Buddhism (10 of them).  I also have a tattoo of an open book near my right elbow (self-explanatory, lol) and Optimus Prime on my right shoulder (because, well, who wouldn’t want a tattoo of an imaginary alien robot leader whose tag line is, “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings”?)

:)

I am the librarian at a small university-college in Norway, catering to students and lecturers. 

I have wanted to get a tattoo for ages, and finally got my courage up last summer. I wanted an owl, but let it be up to the tattoo artist how and where. He photoshopped together two photos of owls to make them fit my arm, and this is the result. There isn’t really any big story behind the motif, the tattoo just feels right - for me as a person and my vocation. 

Museum Librarian - Chicago, IL

Fascinated by bookplates. Love owls. Perfect combination.

Artwork by Bek Huston, Heathen Ink Corporation in Summit, IL.

Link to original source

I’m a library technician at a Bay Area high school in California. I’ve got a paraprofessional library technology certificate and am in my second year of MLIS coursework at San Jose State. Also a huge fan of The Smiths, the source of the quote, natch, this tattoo was my 31st birthday  present to myself in late 2012. Artwork by Dan Gilsdorf at Tattoo 13 in Oakland. 

Check out this short article and slideshow about western women and the tattoo at The New Yorker. The article reviews the new, updated edition of Margot Mifflin’s book Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo. It looks like a really interesting book, but I feel like it needs to be said that rather than being “a cultural history, with photographs of tattooed women and female tattoo artists through the ages” it appears to be a work that discusses tattoos and tattooing among white women from the middle 19th century and beyond. Women all over he world have been getting tattooed for thousands of years. Regardless, I’m still excited to check this out!

I’m currently attending library school through UW-Milwaukee. I have a total of six tattoos, most of them literary (I was an English major as an undergrad), but my biggest and most colorful tat is an ode to Flannery O’Connor on my left forearm. Work done by Keith at Skinprints in Eau Claire, WI - he loves peacock feathers, and draws them beautifully.

Librarian/Archivist/Historian - public library (multiple hats)

Washington State

The two ladies are based on some friezes on the facade of The Field Museum in Chicago, where I worked in the anthropology department and later the library. The flowers are associated with important people and events in my life.

All work was done by Partrick Cornolo at Speakeasy Custom Tattoo in Chicago. If anyone is looking for an artist/studio in Chicago, I highly recommend both - they were great to work with and worth the wait.

Photo blurry is thanks to awesome natural hot springs action. If you are in Washington, nearish to Seattle, check out Goldmyer Hot Springs - it’s an easy 5 mile hike in and has beautiful camp sites. Only 20 reservations a day, so it doesn’t get crowded or dirty.

Hello to all our new followers. I hope you’re liking what you’ve seen so far here. We would like to invite you to submit your own ink. This is a community-run tumblr, so we will only keep growing if our tattooed followers keep submitting photos of their awesome work. If you have any questions about submission, or if you would like to email the blog admin to submit photos on your behalf, send us a message.

I’m a Librarian Assistant in a public library system in suburban Atlanta. I researched tattoos and tattoo artist for about 3 years before I got one. This piece of art was done by Lord Yatta.