Pale Blue Dot, The Dot And The Line

This tattoo belongs to Dan MacLean.

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

- Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

This is Katie’s tattoo:

This is inspired from one of my favorite children’s books by Norton Juster called The Dot and the Line.  Not only do I absolutely adore this story of a line hopelessly in love with a dot, but it was also the first book I ever found and bought from the independent bookstore I have been working at for the past 5 years. Back before I actually got paid to be surrounded by books, I would go in The Book Tavern (Augusta, Ga) and pester the owner (and my neighbor). I spotted a first edition of this book and had no prior knowledge of it. I immediately fell in love with not just it’s story but it’s worn and tattered pages. I traded in most of my prized books to get it at a discount because I couldn’t afford it’s rare price tag.