Ink4ink -- Portland librarians matching tattoos and books

August 1, 2016 10:09 AM

"Steve Roskoski, a library assistant, said he and his fellow librarians (some with their own tattoos) came up with the idea to match readers with books based on their tats. It’s Portland after all. “Book recommending and finding people good reads is something we do every day here at the Multnomah County Library,” Roskoski said. “Social media is a great way to interact with those people - and we’ve seen a great response. We had over 150 awesome tattoos sent in.” That number will continue to grow, Roskoski suspects, as the word gets out."

Multnomah County Libraries' twitter account.

Willamette Week weighs in.

posted by gingerbeer (27 comments total)

My only tattoo is of a phrase which is also the title of a book. I don't like the book.

This is obviously just one more reason to get the badass mermaid tattoo I want so that I can get the tattoo-based book recommendation I truly deserve.
posted by sunset in snow country at 10:17 AM on August 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

My tattoo is the alphabet.
posted by hopeless romantique at 10:19 AM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I love the Multnomah County Libraries.
posted by gucci mane at 10:19 AM on August 1, 2016 [7 favorites]

Oddly, every book they recommend is by Chuck Palahniuk.
posted by gottabefunky at 10:34 AM on August 1, 2016 [10 favorites]

Someone needs to explain to the staff that a semicolon tat isn't just for grammar nerds. It's also for grammar nerds but can have a larger meaning.
posted by Bella Donna at 10:39 AM on August 1, 2016 [7 favorites]

Also, fun post, OP. Thanks!
posted by Bella Donna at 10:39 AM on August 1, 2016

Most of the books I check out at the MiskU library outright require a supplicant to have the appropriate tattoo, brand or ominous birthmark to even be allowed access. Those with exceptional body art may even get to join the Bookbinding Club as a permanent resource!
posted by FatherDagon at 10:58 AM on August 1, 2016 [12 favorites]

My tattoo is the alphabet too.
posted by enf at 11:50 AM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's also for grammar nerds but can have a larger meaning.

I thought it'd be more like this. The awareness ribbon folks sorted this out through color coding.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:39 PM on August 1, 2016

I have no tattoos. I guess I'd get a blank book.
posted by jonmc at 12:43 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think I'd offer a lot of folks a kanji dictionary.
posted by ikahime at 1:16 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I do have one small tattoo that's an obscure Yeats reference, and only one time has anyone (a cashier at the co-op, obviously) recognized it. I'm fine with that, I'm not obsessive about Yeats or anything. There's actually a longer story about it that's less boring than some other tattoo stories I've heard, and yet no one ever asks me about it. They only ever ask me about the one on my arm (granted, most visible) that literally means nothing and I never know what to say about it. ("Literally, it means nothing," is apparently not an acceptable answer, judging from the constant awkward conversations I've had. I don't get it.)
posted by jeweled accumulation at 1:22 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Have you no faith in librarians? An alphabet is not just letters. There's the placement, the font, the attention to details. /beanplate
posted by filthy light thief at 1:29 PM on August 1, 2016 [8 favorites]

They only ever ask me about the one on my arm (granted, most visible) that literally means nothing and I never know what to say about it.

I've learned after a while that when people ask me what my tattoos mean, we're both best served by me responding with "That depends - how interested are you in hermetic mysticism and the alchemical magnum opus?" to spare me going on for twenty minutes while an increasingly panicky audience tries desperately to disengage from my spiel.
posted by FatherDagon at 1:44 PM on August 1, 2016 [8 favorites]

This thread could use more photographs of the tattoos under discussion, I think.
posted by gingerbeer at 2:19 PM on August 1, 2016 [4 favorites]

Have you no faith in librarians? An alphabet is not just letters. There's the placement, the font, the attention to details. /beanplate

So, uhh, the font I chose is the font of the title page and chapter categories in Calvino's Invisible Cities (it's News Gothic MT, btw). I have plenty of faith in librarians, but I also already know that my own preference is for books that love words and language. I work right near the library though, so maybe I'll see what they can suggest.
posted by hopeless romantique at 2:42 PM on August 1, 2016

i'm so used to being around folks covered in tattoos that when i go to family gatherings or something and i'm the only one with them and people start asking me what they mean i just panic. honestly most of them don't mean anything really and it feels so weirdly invasive. like, i get that it's visible art but seriously who cares, they're not on your body. the absolute worst is when dudes try to ask about your tattoos as a pickup line. blegh

on the bright side, at least my mom stopped crying about my tattoos after the third one
posted by burgerrr at 3:10 PM on August 1, 2016 [4 favorites]

oh and slightly more on topic i have a scythe as a terry pratchett tribute but also scythes are just cool so it works both ways
posted by burgerrr at 3:12 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

expectation: super cool obscure lost-world pulp novel
reality: botany textbook
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:44 PM on August 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

Yeah most of my tattoos don't mean anything special, but are special to me nonetheless. I have knee tattoos that about 15 of my friends also have, a leg one, an ankle one that's somewhat obvious (it's two Portland Trail Blazers' names), and a few arm ones that are a bit more obscure in meaning, but aren't super interesting to people other than myself and a few others.

Then again, all of my tattoos are stick and pokes, so the most common question I get is "are all of your tattoos stick and pokes" followed by "why?" and that's when I launch into a diatribe about my decision to get primarily stick and poke tattoos as a way to reflect the class I was born into and which I currently reside in. This is merely kidding on the square but it rolls people's heads a little bit. Also, I still use sterile tattoo needles.
posted by gucci mane at 5:04 PM on August 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

Metafilter: a horse with crystals growing out of its head and an outer space background professional white background.
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:06 PM on August 1, 2016

I'm... uh... apparently looking for a book about a guy named John G?
posted by rlk at 6:14 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

Both my tattoos are images from books, so if the librarians don't recommend those exact books there will be HELL TO PAY
posted by ejs at 6:25 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

hopeless romantique, maybe you need some Robert Bringhurst in your life?
posted by bluebelle at 7:07 PM on August 1, 2016

000--999

Go ahead and pick me just one book.
posted by BlueHorse at 11:39 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

For real? And I don't get to do a RA interview or anything?

Okay, so you're a generalist. I'd probably go with something from 031.02, one of those reference-as-pleasure-reading kinds of books: Why Things Are, Imponderables, The Straight Dope, An Incomplete Education, something like that.
posted by box at 4:42 AM on August 2, 2016

I start working in adult services tonight, after a decade in youth services...no one told me anything about tattoos!
posted by Biblio at 6:43 AM on August 2, 2016