Anybody worried about the death of publishing should spend five minutes reading Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos website. As long as there are readers dedicated enough to inscribe books on their bodies, literature will never fade away.
At Contrariwise, users send in photos of their literary tattoos, and readers vote on their favorites. William Shakespeare and Kurt Vonnegut are the two most popular authors so far, and some of the ink work is truly beautiful.
Here’s one tattoo quote, pictured above. “My tattoo is from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, and it says ‘everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.’ My friend, whom I’ve known for 22 of my 25 years, wrote this in her own handwriting for me. I chose Kurt Vonnegut because he is the most inspirational writer I’ve ever read, and I made it a mission to read everything he’s ever written.” Via OUP Blog)