“And this tattooing had been the work of a departed prophet and seer of his island, who, by those hieroglyphic marks, had written out on his body a complete theory of the heavens and the earth, and a mystical treatise on the art of attaining truth.”

(Chapter 110: “Queequeg in His Coffin”)

Tattooing the Whale: A Complete Theory of the Heavens and the Earth represents the culmination of a ten-week meditation on Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. New Trier’s IGSS seniors focused on the writing and philosophy of the novel, on the social and political implications of the whaling industry, and on the artistic imagery and references used throughout this great work of literature. Like the “hieroglyphic marks” tattooed all over Queequeg, we see the whale, the narrator, (and the book!) similarly covered with markings meant to delineate the “art of attaining truth.” In Tattooing the Whale, we respond with a “mystical treatise” of our own, covering the entire twenty-five foot sperm whale that now hangs in a second floor hallway at New Trier.