The idea that quote tattoos are usually quite naff went out of the window at this year’s Dior haute couture show in Paris. The models’ tattoos were not real, but the quotes – inked across collarbones and hands – were. Borrowed from the surrealist French poet André Breton, one read: “L’imaginaire. C’est ce qui tend à devenir réel,” which translates as: “The imaginary, this is what tends to become real.”
The lines were in keeping with the Dalí-esque set design, which featured nose and ear sculptures hanging from the ceiling, but they have also sparked debate. Since his death in 1966, Breton has been exposed as a misogynist who once said: “The problem of woman is the most marvellous and disturbing problem in all the world.” Nice. Whether Dior designer Maria Grazia Chiuri (whose debut Dior collection featured “We Should All Be Feminists” T-shirts) knew this about Breton is unclear, but it is certainly not the first time dubious tattoos were inspired by quotes.
William Blake for Gucci
For Gucci spring-summer 17, Alessandro Michele sent Latvian model Lorens down the catwalk with Songs of Innocence and Experience quotes such as “Garden of Love” and “Pretty Rose Tree” fake-tattooed across his face, alongside a questionable replica of a gang tattoo insignia.
Teddy Roosevelt for Miley Cyrus
The pop star got the president’s words inked on her arm when she was just 19: “So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” Fiance Liam Hemsworth got a matching tattoo of the line before it. Then they broke up – again.
PJ Harvey for model Freja Beha Erichsen
It seems likely that the supermodel’s tattoo of the words “This World Tonight Is Mine” were nabbed from the PJ Harvey song The Sky Lit Up. It’s vague, it’s subtle, and it’s wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet. It’s the opposite of Cara Delevingne’s “BACON...” tattoo, written in caps on her foot.
King Lear for Megan Fox
The actor’s tattoo of the Shakespeare quote “We will all laugh at gilded butterflies” is one of several on her back, the rest of which were famously Photoshopped out for the cover of French Grazia in 2012, despite being present for a number of her Armani campaigns.
