Johnny Depp had no sooner walked across the stage at the MTV Movie Awards last night than the Zone’s forums began to light up with inquiries about a new tattoo showing on the inside of his left forearm. None of the well-wishers who have seen Johnny this spring, at the many meet-and-greets in the Midwest, have spotted the new tat, as the chilly climate has ensured that JD was always bundled up in layers of clothing and his British tan leather jacket when he greeted fans. For the curious, the new tattoo consists of three words in a large Gothic font similar to his Lily-Rose tattoo: “Silence,” “Exile,” and “Cunning.” You can see a closeup of the new tattoo here, and a different picture of Johnny and his new tattoo here.

And what might its significance be? Given that the three words are unlikely to be random choices, as JD has repeatedly told interviewers that his body is a journal on which he inscribes what matters most to him, we suggest the inspiration comes from the conclusion of James Joyce’s landmark 1916 novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Having vowed to leave Ireland and its constrictions in order to pursue his life’s work as an artist, Joyce’s hero Stephen Dedalus offers the following manifesto:

“I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use–silence, exile, and cunning.” This declaration of the artist’s independence from any system that might stifle his creativity could well appeal to Johnny, who like James Joyce has always charted his own course.

The Zone thanks AnaMaria and Carasun for the pictures of Johnny, and Theresa for locating and posting the Joyce quotation on the Pit, in the thread called “Picture Discussion: Johnny at the MTV Awards.” To see a larger version of our picture at left, click here. –Part-Time Poet