The Story Behind My Le Petit Prince Tattoo

4th time is the charm, perhaps? I'm not new to tats, and this is my 4th ink already, yet I can confidently say that this cutie work courtesy of Revolver Tattoo is definitely my favorite! (My second favorite is actually the one on my collarbone saying "Alis Volat Propriis", a Latin phrase meaning she flies with her own wings")

The inspiration behind this, as you probably can tell from the title, is from the children story book Le Petit Prince. It has always been one of my favorite books, written by French author/poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The idea to incorporate this into a tattoo design just came to me out of nowhere haha.

I have always been fascinated with the love story between Le Petit Prince and The Rose. For me, their kind of love is very realistic and honest. It is not perfect like your typical children fairy tale love story. I am especially fond of The Rose's character, hence why I want her to be put as my main tattoo design.

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If you never read the book, The Rose is described as a beautiful yet vain flower, who has the tendency to manipulate The Little Prince for her own benefit with her damsel in distress act, yet her love for him is pure and in the end, she gave in into Little Prince's decision to leave her if that what makes him truly happy. 

The Little Prince's love to The Rose is also imperfect, in my opinion he has the tendency to be codependent on her, hence why it was so easy for her to manipulate him. However, again the love that was shared between them is truly pure and one-of-a-kind.

It's mesmerizing for me because on the contrary of the common belief that says love is not selfish, I think that belief is just too black and white whereas love definitely has many grey areas. Selfish love does exists, yet it doesn't mean that it's not love. Even though in the end The Rose overcame her selfishness, even when she was still being selfish, she still loves The Little Prince.

Anyway, in the book it is described that The Rose lives under a dome to protect her from wild animals at night. The dome is of course, made and put on top of The Rose by The Little Prince every night without any fail. However, once The Little Prince left her, she no longer wanted to be put under the dome, as she believes she could protect her own self with her four tiny thorns. Such a naïve yet formidable creature, isn't she?

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My tats shows her without the dome, because I like this version of The Rose better after The Little Prince left her, when she finally overcame her selfishness and became this independent lady yet retain her naïvety.  

As for the quote below my tats, it reads "L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux", meaning what's essential is invisible to the eyes. When exploring the earth, The Little Prince stumbled upon a garden full of roses, 500 roses to be exact, all look the same like his own Rose, as pretty and as vain. The Little Prince got sad because he felt betrayed since The Rose said she's one of a kind in this universe.

The quote for me speaks as in The Rose, that particular Rose, is important to The Little Prince not just because of her beauty that can be seen through the eyes, but because of her naïvety and bravery, the traits that make the Little Prince got truly enchanted by her. 

I'm such a hopeless romantic, a cheesy, hopeless romantic haha.

Anyway, that's the story behind my tats design, I'm not even sure if people will read this but I'm doing this for myself, because writing makes me happy ♡.

Thanks again to Revolver Tattoo for this super adorable tattoo! FYI, the constellation behind the rose is hand-drawn by Christine the tattoo artist. Talk about a skilled tattoo artist 😍

Thanks for visiting, Loves, talk to you soon 😘