Alice in Wonderland tattoos; every alternative wannabe and their dog has one nowadays.
However, there is a good reason; let's face it, the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass books are fantastic. Their continued popularity shows humanity's need for something nonsensical and out of the ordinary.
Alice tattoos seem to be split into four categories, firstly quotes. Alice in Wonderland has to be one of the most quoted books of all time, with phrases that have worked their way into our vocabulary. But with such great sentences, it's not a surprise.
Some are more original than others, unfortunately 'We're All Mad Here' has been vastly over used.
Another popular Alice in Wonderland tattoo theme is the original drawings by Sir John Tenniel. These are my favourite type of Alice tattoos. You can't beat the original illustrations and I love the sketched style of the tattoos. It's a great way for tattoo artists to display their talent and, although as usual these are getting more popular, they are slightly more original than most.
The next trend in Alice in Wonderland tattoos is the art from the 1951 Disney film version. I have to admit this is one of my favourite films. Yes, they did Disneyfy the story a bit but they managed not to sugarcoat it too much and it keeps the surreal feeling of the book fairly well. I'm less fond of the tattoos as they tend towards the cutesy, but there are still some great ones out there.
There are some also not so great Alice film tattoos...
Close, but not quite there.
Finally, as you've probably guessed, is Tim Burton's 2010 Alice in Wonderland film. A combination of Tim Burton and Alice is just perfect really and provides surreal and sometimes disturbing art to base tattoos on.
This looks like a trend that shows no sign of dying out and demonstrates how the book has spawned a following that will most likely last far into the future. My only nit pick really is that Alice tattoos are so vastly copied and, I want to ask lots of the people who have them, have you actually read the book?
I know, I'm a book snob...and I like it.
I loved this post.
ReplyDeleteI've been an Alice in Wonderland fan since I was 9, when a friend of my mother gave me the book, with the original drawings. Now I'm almost 18, I've seen every movie of alice, and read the book more than 8 times.
I want a tattoo, but it's a little bit disturbing seeing that everyone has one, even if they have only seen Burton's movie, or the old one from Disney.
Good post, anyways!
I am a huge Alice fangirl. I'm planning a tattoo but am going to let my tattoo artist design it. I'm going for a mix between the Disney cartoon and the Tim Burton version.
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