As part of my continuing effort to BLOG MORE OFTEN, I bring you some fan art of a very lasting nature. Jess Y has been a fan of mine since my first YA book, Midnighters, came out. She has a particular love of Dess. (I would say it’s their rhyming names, but Dess is my favorite character too.)
Jess recently decided to immortalize her Dess-love in skin ink. So I present to you the polymath tattoo:
As you can see, it’s still a bit new and raw.
For those of you who haven’t read Midnighters, each of the five characters has their own symbol. The symbol for each character appears at the end of any chapter that they are the viewpoint character for. (BEST. SENTENCE. EVER.)
What you may not know is that I designed the symbols using a fractal program. (Those who can’t draw, fractal.) Alas, all of the original designs have been lost do to software decay. That is, the fractal software I used will no longer run or open files on today’s operating systems.
Luckily, I did save one of my early attempts as a jpg. So here it is:
Pretty cool, huh? My fractal math has left the building, so that’s all I have to say.
Note that this is the third known midnighter tattoo. This guy also has Dess’s polymath tat, and this girl went for Jessica’s flamebringer tattoo.
Note: Book-related tats are not a requirement for my fans. But feel free!
See you soon, gaudily festooned poltroons.
(First comment but not even going to say anything about it… oh wait) 😉
AWESOME! I am still yet to read the Midnighter’s series though… fractal? What is fractal and how is it used to create those symbols?
Does anyone know if there are any other Scott/book related tattoos?
*About previous post* I’m learning about Australia in Geo at the moment and bushfires were one of the topics we did earlier!
AND Scott, why haven’t you done FAF in like a year? Is there a lack of art or a lack of enthusiasm on your part? 😛
1. Thank you for the continuing effort to blog more often! 😀 It is very happy-making.
2. It’s pretty cool that three people have gotten Midnighters tattoos now. Has anyone gotten tattoos from your other books?
3. I like that you used fractals to design the symbols. Yet more math!
@1. A fractal is a self-repeating pattern that gets smaller as it goes along, if that makes any sense. Like a fern leaf. If you look at each of the little leaves on a fern leaf, they’re shaped like the whole leaf. And then those leaves have little bumps that have the same shape again. I hope that helped.
wow, this was awesome. thanks for blogging more often!
How cool! If there are any Leviathan-themed tattoos, I would seriously consider getting one. What cool symbols represent LBG?
Also, I just finished Divergent last night. It is awesome, and the movie looks awesome! I can’t wait to read the other two! Any other Divergent-lovers here? (And what’s the fan name for them?)
Oh, and I agree with #3, your effort to blog is much appreciated!
“Gaudily festooned poltroons” Hahahahahhaahha I can’t stop laughing.
@Roxanne – I am a Divergent lover! You don’t know how lucky you only just finishing the first book! I read Divergent at least two years ago and have been waiting since then for book number 3! And yes the movie (judging from the trailers and clips) looks amazing so far. My only worry is that they handle the romance carefully and make it important without delving into the realms of the typical “teen movie” love story.
And I think the fan name is Initiates?
@Roxanne – I love Divergent! I read the first two books but like a year ago, so I guess I’ll have to read them again to understand Allegiant, and also for when the movie come out. It does look pretty awesome, I can’t wait to see it!
And for a Leviathan tattoo…..I don’t know…I guess you could do the Nautilus for the Darwinists, or the, what was the Clankers’ symbol? Anyone remember?
On another matter, I just lent Leviathan to a friend 🙂 It feels really good when I am actually able to convince someone to read it, because most of the time nobody knows what I’m talking about 😛
She said the story sounded great, but when she saw the book she said it was too thick…..I hope she finishes it.
@Middy Me, I believe the Clanker symbol is the gear with steampunk wingy-things. (so descriptive). It’s on the cover of Leviathan. cover image: http://carrieslager.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/leviathan-by-scott-westerfeld.jpg
i’m currently reading Behemoth <3
Yeah, the most obvious Leviathan tats would be either winged gears or the nautilus shell.
Winged gears from first cover:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K4IzTxBjV6k/Takw63FJqxI/AAAAAAAAUAk/yAjKSpFE12U/s1600/leviathanusfinalsmall.jpg
Nautilus shell from lots of places, like the building decoration in the Hyde Park illustration in Book 1.
That is quite an icy tattoo Jess-la!
Scott – where is Shay’s third book? Any news on it, pretty please?
Neat tats! I loved the Midnighters series, too bad they don’t have it at my school anymore!
The school I used to attend had a nice little section of the W shelf dedicated to your books, but the school that I switched to is definitely lacking…. Kind of sad.
I can’t wait for your new book! (I know writing takes a while. Take your time ^-^)
I’m seconding Julie-wa’s question and declare that I need an answer ASAP. Either that, or the movie news we were promised like 6 months ago.
It’d be cool to have winged gears on one shoulder and a nautilus shell on the other. 😀 If I ever get a tattoo I would seriously contemplate those. But honestly I don’t think I’ll ever have the nerve. 😉
Yeah, if I even get a tattoo, it will likely be themed on one (or more) of Scott’s books… But most likely, I will never get a tattoo.
Ooh this is awesome! But I think if I ever got a tattoo, it would be words…. I’d have such trouble deciding on a quote though….
@Divergent conversation: I’ve only read the first book so no spoilers! 🙂 But I think we’re pretty good about that here….
And bye! Just a quick stop to see what’s going on. ^^ It seems like I hardly get to talk to anyone here anymore….
*sadly goes back to reading APUSH textbook*
Officially back from Colorado. Yay for unlimited internet again!
So now I’ve finally got my sister reading LBG, and she’s in the middle of Goliath. She likes to downplay how much she enjoys things I’m a fan of, but I think she likes it well enough. But she annoys me to no end by continuously calling the characters Alex, Dylan, Lilith, and Newcastle, despite my corrections.
I’ve also come to the conclusion that a LBG calendar would be pretty amazing and I would totally buy it! Think about that, Scott and Keith!
And just curious: Scott, if Dr. Barlow’s loris were to get a proper name, what would it be?
In other news, I’ve reached a new milestone in my novel-in-progress: 75,000 words! 😀
@MidK: *gulp* Alpha submissions are officially open. We’ve got four months and I am FREAKING OUT! Do you have any ideas yet? Because I sure don’t. (Assuming you’re applying, which you totally should be.)
@Roxanne wow, Colorado… how was it? I never travel anywhere 🙁
I always imagined Dr. Barlow’s Loris as a William for some reason, but it would be so cool to find out any sort of official name. *ahem* Scott, would you like to reveal anything pretty please?
I don’t really know what to say. First time on site but LOVE your books. Totally FAWESOME “Zahler rocks”. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve been able to read of your midnighters series, can’t get my hands on the last book, and love the tattoo. I think the factual art program thing you used looks cool, and wish it was still around so I could use it to do some of my art instead of my schools lame computer programs like Alice. Can’t wait to finish the series even though I know I’ll cry. Later.
@Roxanne, love divergent, number 54 on the waiting list for 3rd book, and that is how many for the book BEFORE it was out, lol. Hope to read more soon.
Still pretty devoted to the uglies series as my favorite book ever, that or midnighters. Something about the books made me think really hard, and for 3 days I kept telling my friends it changed how I think forever. Lol
Just finished reading the Midnighters trilogy.
As I closed the book I just let myself fall off the couch and lay on the floor for a while. Because I couldn’t even take the awesomeness. And the sadness.
It was too amazing. Mr. Westerfeld, you really are phenomenal.
Your writing style is captivating, and some of the descriptions you use hit me so vividly that I have to take a moment and say, “wow”. So, you’re awesome. I hope you know that.
The only major problem is not stopping to edit every time you reread a paragraph and decide that it’s total crap.