As wordy designs become all the rage, a pop-up tattoo studio at Melbourne writers’ festival is inscribing idiosyncratic sentiments into the skin of ardent book fans

The Melbourne writers’ festival has already, in its opening weekend, sparked lively discussion around what a literary festival should entail. But as controversy over the direction of this year’s unconventional program roils, passionate festivalgoers are enjoying a novel (apologies) event at a very unique venue on the quiet flank of the city centre.

Beneath the light-filled dome of the Mission to Seafarers, located in the Docklands precinct, a pop-up tattoo studio is inscribing literary memorials into the skin of ardent fans.

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Over the past 20 to 30 years, the increasing popularity of tattoos has been nothing short of phenomenal. In the 90s, there was a rash of barbed-wire bands and slightly problematic Celtic and Aztec designs. Traditional Japanese irezumi-inspired designs dominated the noughties. In the early years of our present decade, the hipster cultural putsch brought back Sailor Jerry-style designs. More recently, the rage in ink is all about idiosyncrasy and quirk.

Mind you, the subculture of literary tattoos has been around much longer than that. Think Max Cady in Scorsese’s Cape Fear, or just the bold letters brandished across a set of knuckles that spells out “love” and “hate”, the great thematic keystones for wordsmiths across the ages. Search the internet and you will discover endless Pinterest boards dedicated to the literary tattoo, celebrating the work of writers from Ovid to Dr Seuss to Jane Austen to bell hooks.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Festivalgoers mill around at the Mission to Seafarers waiting for their chance to get a literary tattoo. Photograph: Jack Latimore/The Guardian

The team from Love Death Faith (LDF) Tattoo, led by artist and owner Les Rice, has collated a range of such cult literary-themed designs – or “flash” – for ink-inclined lit tragics. Visitors to the Mission to Seafarers building can select from Tolkien quotes, Ralph Steadman’s psychedelic flock of bats, Quentin Blake’s quirky illustrations for Roald Dahl, Vonnegut’s whimsical tombstone epitaphs – even Scuffy the Tugboat from the Little Golden Books.

LDF Tattoo has done several similar pop-ups at festivals recently. Rice tells Guardian Australia that at Spectrum Now festival in Sydney they worked alongside sword swallowers, jugglers and an old-school barber. At that city’s Comic-Con they provided comic-related flash such as pictures of Pokemon, The Simpsons and plenty of Marvel characters. “It keeps us fresh by sending us back to the drawing board to think about what makes a good tattoo image,” he says.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Guardian Australia’s Jack Latimore gets his literary tattoo. Photograph: Lisa Skerrett/The Guardian

The Melbourne writers’ festival pop-up epitomises the unconventional approach that festival director Marieke Hardy has taken in curating this year’s program. “It’s a festival that celebrates people who love words and writing, and that idea of words and writing can be at any level,” she says. “Words and writing have helped so many of us survive really difficult stuff. We also often see ourselves reflected in the pages of a book. Having that symbolism attached to your body is a great way of paying tribute to these awesome tomes that have helped steer us through the complexities of life, make us who we are.”

Hardy’s own literary tattoo is a reproduction of a Christina Malman illustration, which serves as both a tribute to the original artist’s work with the New Yorker magazine and memorialises a deceased pet. The ink of the tattoo contains the ashes of her beloved dog.

‘I just like having a bit of artwork on me, forever’

Festivalgoers Belle McQuattie from Carlton and Truly Rae from Sorrento are two of the first to get tattoos when the four-day pop-up opens. McQuattie, an avid speculative fiction fan and herself a writer, already has numerous literary tattoos. “My favourite one is the quote I have from [Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s] The Little Prince,” she says. “It’s my favourite book.”

For the festival, McQuattie has selected another quote, this time from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: “I want adventure in the great wide somewhere.”

“I just like having a bit of artwork that I like on me, forever,” she says.

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Rae, who has travelled into Melbourne from the Mornington Peninsula, is getting a line from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: “West of the moon, East of the sun.” She says she grew up reading the books and getting the tattoo feels important. “Stories have a special place in everyone’s heart,” she says.

Rice says he believes tattooing is at its best and most meaningful when images are combined with words. “You see old sailor tattoos and they’ve always got writing on them … That marriage of images and words is a real old tradition for a reason. The image itself isn’t quite enough.”

• LDF Literary Tattoos runs for a second weekend as part of the Melbourne writers’ festival on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 September at Mission to Seafarers Dome, Flinders Street, Docklands