{"id":28205,"date":"2026-05-30T10:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T14:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=28205"},"modified":"2026-05-30T10:45:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T14:45:47","slug":"tattoos-ferdinand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2026\/05\/30\/tattoos-ferdinand\/","title":{"rendered":"Tattoos: Ferdinand The Peaceful Bull"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photographer Ryan Williams of Granby arrived at the opening day tour of the exhibition “Under the Cork Tree: The Story of Ferdinand\u201d at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art<\/a> in Amherst on May 9, with his left arm inked with tattoos from the 1936 picture book written by Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFerdinand,\u201d Leaf said at The New York Times National Book Fair on Nov. 17, 1937, \u201cwas the story of a Spanish bull that refused to go into the arena to fight, so they had to send him back home, where he settled down again to smelling the flowers.\u201d Many see Ferdinand\u2019s lack of fight as a fable promoting peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams says his mother was an art teacher and huge fan of picture books. \u201cI lost her and I kind of like live her legacy by little things I do in my life\u2014like covering myself in tattoos,\u201d he explained. His Ferdinand tattoos were inked by Tim Brewer at Blueprint Tattoo in Hadley in 2016. “And this one is particularly meaningful to me because of pacifism. There is great power in pacifism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by\u00a0contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And\u00a0sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a>\u00a0so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9 Greg Cook 2026 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ryan
Ryan Williams (center) with curator Jane Bayard Curley (right) at “Under the Cork Tree: The Story of Ferdinand” at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, May 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ryan
Ryan Williams’s arm is tattooed with illustrations from “The Story of Ferdinand.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ryan
Ryan Williams’s arm is tattooed with illustrations from “The Story of Ferdinand.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""There
“There was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand.” Robert Lawson, Illustration for The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, 1936. The Morgan Library & Museum, 1970.16:1-37, Gift of the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. \u00a9 1936 Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, renewed 1964 Munro Leaf and John W. Boyd. Used by permission of Viking Children\u2019s Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ryan
Ryan Williams’s arm is tattooed with illustrations from “The Story of Ferdinand.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""He
“He liked to sit just quietly and smell the flowers.” Robert Lawson, Illustration for The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, 1936. The Morgan Library & Museum, 1970.16:1-37, Gift of the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. \u00a9 1936 Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, renewed 1964 Munro Leaf and John W. Boyd. Used by permission of Viking Children\u2019s Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ryan
Ryan Williams’s arm is tattooed with illustrations from “The Story of Ferdinand.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""He
“He didn’t look where he was sitting…” Robert Lawson, Illustration for The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, 1936. The Morgan Library & Museum, 1970.16:1-37, Gift of the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. \u00a9 1936 Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, renewed 1964 Munro Leaf and John W. Boyd. Used by permission of Viking Children\u2019s Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ryan
Ryan Williams’s arm is tattooed with illustrations from “The Story of Ferdinand.” (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Book
Book cover for The Story of Ferdinand illustrated by Robert Lawson and written by Munro Leaf, 1936. \u00a9 1936 Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, renewed 1964 Munro Leaf and John W. Boyd. Used by permission of Viking Children\u2019s Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photographer Ryan Williams of Granby arrived at the opening day tour of the exhibition “Under the Cork Tree: The Story of Ferdinand\u201d at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst on May 9, with his left arm inked with tattoos from the 1936 picture book written by Munro Leaf and illustrated by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,107],"tags":[1423],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28205"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28209,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28205\/revisions\/28209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}