“Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there is nothing else to gaze on?” asks Robert Service, “… Have you swept the visioned valley with the green stream streaking through it, Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?

Have you strung your soul to silence? Then for God’s sake go and do it; Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.”

The poem from which these lines are taken is called “The call of the wild.” If you’re considering a tent tattoo, our guess is that you’ve heard it. When these dark, damp and dirty four walls and roof close in about you, and grey pavement gives way to grey steel and glass, you’ve caught yourself a fever, and the only cure is the wild.

All outdoorsy folk know that the expanses of forest, ocean, desert, plain, or sky loosen a screw inside of our heads that tends to wind tighter and tighter. Hitting the dusty trail reminds us of our place in this universe, our insignificance, and yet, our strength to endure and survive.

And when you leave home and make the soft pine needles of the ground your bed, you’ll doubtless need a tent around you to stave of the wet and the cold. Out on the trail, your tent is your best friend. In extreme cases, it could mean the difference between life and death. Get yourself a tent tattoo, and whenever the call of the wild grows faint, you’ll still carry it with you. Always.