Courtesy of Kai Ogden

Students sit down at their desks and open their copies of Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Gray,” scanning paragraph after paragraph for a phrase to analyze, a passage to dissect or a quote that matches their new teacher’s many Wilde inspired tattoos.

Kai Ogden, an English senior and aspiring English teacher, sports four tattoos representing his favorite author’s philosophy. His first, a quote on his left arm, “all art is quite useless,” combines Ogden’s love for art, education and literature. 

“The philosophy (of the quote) is: art is simply for aesthetic purposes,” Ogden said. “It’s not for meaning, it’s simple. Things are good to look at. (The tattoo reads) ‘all art is quite useless,’ but it’s a piece of art. It has meaning, but it’s also a cool font and looks beautiful. It’s this catch-22.”

Inspired by another Wilde quote about morality in the arts, Ogden carries two angel wings on his back: one points up while the other points down and the word “amoral” stretches across his spine. In the future, Ogden plans to tattoo the words “moral” and “immoral” behind his ears as another visual representation of Wildean philosophy.

“It’s (Wilde’s) philosophy that no book is immoral, there are good books and bad books,” Ogden said. “Placement is important, I put (the word “amoral”) in the middle of my body to represent that I am in the middle. I want to make sure that I follow moral principles, but also there’s some immoral principles that are okay. It’s a checks and balances thing of the question ‘Who am I as a person?’ Philosophy is really important to me, I base my life off of it.”

Both Wilde quotes represent what it means to be a minority in the 21st century, Ogden said. 

“It’s a mix of everything really,” Ogden said. “As a teacher, you’re taught these different pedagogies and principles that you must follow. But you have all these different groups, communities coming together in my own philosophy, that are telling me different things. I need to figure out who I am as a person, which path I’m going to take.”

Ogden said he hopes his passion for Wildean philosophy will inspire a similar passion for literature, learning and empathy in his students.

“I definitely want to be involved with tattoos (in the future),” Ogden said. “Teaching (students) that these quotes mean something more than just words.”