Globe Corner Blogs

Dan's Map Tattoo, Part I--photo by Llalan

I am a Legend!! The Map of Maps is here to stay forever!

My map tattoo has begun.  It started as an uncharted adventure with possible potential or disaster. The artist had never done a map tattoo before, and neither had his colleagues. He told me that it is easy to map out a tattoo on a person’s body, but this is tattooing a map. Furthermore, it is a map of maps: it’s not a map of a real place but of geographic forms and names. (It was inspired by a map in The Agile Rabbit Book, one of my favorites.) It was a challenge, with no one to go to for advice.

Needless to say, when I went for my first session he told me that he had practiced…by putting the stencil on his girlfriend for many hours the night before.  Apparently he couldn’t get it right.  We took the plunge anyway and on the first try he had the stencil on my arm correctly. I was happy, he was happy (and relieved), and we got started. Two and a half hours later I walked out with an outline of what was to come and a smile. Hooray!!

I recently have gone to my second session of the map tattoo (see next photo). Continue Reading »

I have always been drawn to maps.  When my family would go on long trips I would be the one holding the map, whether I was helping or not, and studying it.  My roommates always come to me for directions or to use my map collection of Boston.  I even got a job at a map store.  Needless to say, I really like maps. 

There is one book that caught my eye one day in the store that all map lovers should see,  The Agile Rabbit Book of Historical and Curious Maps. This may be the coolest book in the whole wide world, containing maps of the weirdest things. Continue Reading »