Tattoos for Dr. Seuss’s Birthday!

Today would have been Dr. Seuss’s 116th birthday. In his honor, this humble writer attempted to write an entire post in rhyming couplets. I was going to take “Green Eggs and Ham” and turn it into a heartfelt story about how somebody went from hating tattoos to falling in love with them. Then I realized something—writing a long, meaningful and silly poem is incredibly difficult. Tip o’ the hat to Dr. Seuss.

Instead, we’re just going to look at some really cool tattoos and learn a couple of things about Theodor Seuss Geisel. Dr. Seuss’s career took a while to get going, he didn’t just burst on to the scene with “The Cat in the Hat” and gain instant stardom among children all over the world. He spent many years working as an illustrator for magazines like Vanity Fair and Life, while also doing commercial illustrations. 

Some Geisel’s most memorable—and jarring to modern audiences—work was done during World War II. Geisel worked for the United States Army producing political cartoons and propaganda. It’s really odd to see the same characters that we recognize from children’s literature in cahoots with Adolf Hitler. Unfortunately, much of Geisel’s work at the time also featured the racial caricatures that were prevalent during the 1940s.  

It was after the war that his career really took off. Geisel wrote “Horton Hears a Who!”, “If I Ran the Circus,” “The Cat in the Hat,” “How The Grinch Stole Christmas!” and “Green Eggs and Ham” between 1955 and 1960, quite a prolific period. 

Over the next half-century, Geisel’s work became an integral part of adolescence for children all over the world. As people get older, they continue to hold on to their love for Dr. Seuss in different ways, including getting tattoos of some of his most beloved characters. In the gallery below you’ll find some hardcore Dr. Seuss fans. 

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!