Yawping

It’s from “Song of Myself” and was made famous in THIS YAWPING

For some reason, I began thought yesterday about what sort of a tattoo I would get if I ever felt the desire to get one. Let me make clear that I will never get a tattoo. I change my mind far too often, and I can just see myself remorsefully trying to wash one off with water as I used to be able to do with my childhood tats from cereal boxes. That being said, were I the type of person to get ink, what would it be? My first instinct was something nautical themed, like a boat or an anchor or something. I’m drawn to that classic romantic calling of the sea (even though I’ve never been on a ship on the ocean…). That may make me feel a bit like Popeye, though, and not in a good way.

I decided that I would most likely get a quote tattooed on me, probably from a poem (Mary said that this would be an acceptable choice in the alternate reality where I took my spendin’ money over to Trader Bob’s). After thinking about Tennyson and Dylan Thomas, I decided that I would most like to have something by Whitman etched into me, probably this quote:

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.