A Braille Tattoo With a Bjork Twist

Today's "Word of the Day" is braille and I learned quite a bit about it when I was researching its etymology. Among my discoveries, was this unique and uber-creative braille tattoo. Not only had I never seen a braille tattoo before, but the sprinkles on the cupcake were what the content of the braille WAS; and that would be the lyrics to Bjork's song 'Bachelorette' off the Homogenic album:Photo by the_girl

I'm a fountain of blood
In the shape of a girl
You're the bird on the brim
Hypnotized by the Whirl
Drink me, make me feel real
Wet your beak in the stream
Game we're playing is life
Love is a two way dream
Leave me now, return tonight
Tide will show you the way
If you forget my name
You will go astray
Like a killer whale
Trapped in a bay
I'm a path of cinders
Burning under your feet
You're the one who walks me
I'm your one way street
I'm a whisper in water
Secret for you to hear
You are the one ((tagg)) who grows distant

I'm a Bjork fan too. I have her portrait tattooed on my leg (photo below), but I do believe that hers is much more clever.

My Bjork Tattoo by Mike DeVries

Word of the Day: April 24, 2009 ~ braille

braille (breyl) - noun

Braille is "a system of writing or printing, devised by Louis Braille for use by the blind, in which combinations of tangible dots or points are used to represent letters, characters, etc., that are read by touch."

In the year 1812, a little French boy, Louis Braille, was blinded. He learned his alphabet at a school for the blind by feeling twigs that were fashioned in the shape of letters, but he was hungry for knowledge and impatient with this awkward technique. One day when he was older, he heard of a French Army captain who had devised a system of raised dots and dashes by which his orders could be read by the fingers in the dark - simple symbols such as one dot for advance, two for retreat.  It was from this beginning that Louis Braille developed what is now known as the Braille system of printing for the blind. He published treatises on his system in 1829 and 1837.

Photo by centralasian