Quotes from Herman Melville, Clarel

We seamen, when there's naught to do In calms, the straw for hats we plait, Or one another we tattoo With marks we copy from a mate, Which he has from his elders ta'en, And those from prior ones again; And few, if any, think or reck But so with pains their skin to deck. This crucifixion, though, by some, A charm is held 'gainst watery doom.

For index now as he stretched forth Derwent, arrested, cried, "Dost bleed?" Touching the naked skin: "Look here— A living fresco!" And indeed, Upon the fore-arm did appear A thing of art, vermil and blue, A crucifixion in tattoo, With trickling blood-drops strange to see...