“My body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story.”

— Johnny Depp

“An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.”

— James Whistler

“My tattoos are reminders to hang in there when things get rough.”

— Demi Lovato

“A tattoo is graffiti on the temple of the body.”

— Gordon B. Hinckley

“Express yourself through your art – whether it’s your drawings in a sketchpad, tattoos on your skin, the shade of your lipstick, or the clothes that you wear.”

— Kat Von D

“My tattoos are like a scrapbook of my life. Sometimes you don’t feel comfortable in your own skin, so covering it up with pictures helps.”

— Frank Iero

“Show me a man with a tattoo and I’ll show you a man with an interesting past.”

— Jack London

“Don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.”

— Bill Hicks

“I will not fail, I will not disappoint you, I will not let you down.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

“I got this Jesus tattoo on my wrist when I was 18 because I know that it’s always going to be a part of me. When I’m playing, it’s staring right back at me, saying, ‘Remember where you came from.’”

— Katy Perry

“My tattoos say “Stay strong.” “Stay” on one wrist and “strong” on the other. I’m able to look at them and be thankful for being alive.”

— Demi Lovato

“It’s all too much and not enough at the same time.”

— Jack Kerouac

“God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.”

— Franz Kafka

“You don’t have to be naked to be sexy.”

— Nicole Kidman

“When I’m good, I’m very good. But when I’m bad I’m better.”

— Mae West

“He said, I’m better off without her, until I showed him my tattoo.”

— Tom Waits

“Usually all my tattoos came at good times. A tattoo is something permanent when you’ve made a self-discovery, or something you’ve come to a conclusion about.”

— Angelina Jolie

“I never thought about getting any tattoos removed.”

— Henry Rollins

“The other day, I got a henna tattoo that says “Forever.””

— Zach Galifianakis

“I am a bit of a bad boy. I have tattoos and I mess around. That’s part of my image, so it’s cool.”

— Zayn Malik

“If the body is a temple, then tattoos are its stained glass windows.”

— Sylvia Plath

“Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.”

— Salvador Dalí

“It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.”

— Charles F. Kettering

“My number is 174517; we have been baptized, we will carry the tattoo on our left arm until we die.”

— Primo Levi

“Johnny Depp is like a brother to me. We have matching tattoos on our backs – Charles Baudelaire, the flowers of evil, this giant skeleton thing. It’s kind of a secret. People say to us, ‘Why did you get that?’ And we say, ‘No reason.’”

— Marilyn Manson

“I think tattoos are horrible. It’s like living in a Pucci dress full-time.”

— Karl Lagerfeld

“Painting and tattooing the body is a return to animalism.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You really need to be certain it’s what you want before you commit.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert

“Not one great country can be named, from the polar regions in the north to New Zealand in the south, in which the aborigines do not tattoo themselves.”

— Charles Darwin

“The first tattoo I got was when I was 17, and it’s a cross on my bicep with ‘Only God Can Judge Me’ underneath.”

— Trey Songz

“A very common thing these days is people show up and they ask us in the band to sign with a Sharpie right on their skin and they go get it tattooed the next day. Then they’ll show up at another show and they’ll have their tattoo.”

— Jared Leto

“I don’t have any tattoos but I’ve thought about getting Ernie, from Bert and Ernie, on my earlobe. He made a big impression on me as a kid. And I have pretty big earlobes.”

— J Mascis

“Why not wear a scar of Motherhood? Better than a tattoo or a mark of Honor. Let the world know what you’ve achieved.”

— Richelle Mead

“I haven’t had a drink in thirteen years, but occasionally I’m tempted to have one beer. The problem is that if I have that one beer, I wake up in Tijuana four days later with a tattoo and a sore ass.”

— Craig Ferguson

“For someone who likes tattoos, the most precious thing is bare skin.”

— Cher

“Becoming a vampire is forever. You don’t get to change your mind about it later. For me, I think that’s one of the big drawbacks with anything that’s permanent. How do you know how you’re going to feel in five years or 10 years? Even with a tattoo.”

— Stephenie Meyer

“I’m really glad I did not tattoo on my body ’cause I don’t want them. So, permanence is a very scary thing to me, along with things that don’t change at all.”

— Stephenie Meyer

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”

— Tony Robbins

“I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.”

— Kurt Cobain

“I have no love for myself as a human being, but I have immense pride in the music I make, and I believe it has an important place. Others do, too, and the thousands of people with Morrissey tattoos certainly proves something.”

— Steven Morrissey