The Zone’s forums exploded with curious questions as soon as Johnny Depp strode on stage at the MTV Movie Awards on June 1st of this year and revealed a bold tattoo on his left arm that none of us had seen before. “Silence, exile, cunning,” it read. While we immediately speculated that the tattoo was a reference to the conclusion of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Johnny Depp has never spoken publicly about this tattoo, so we could not confirm that speculation . . . until now.

At the meet-and-greet after the Sheila Witkin Memorial Reunion Concert in Pompano Beach, Florida on August 29th, a Zoner used her precious seconds of face-to-face time with Johnny Depp to inquire about the Silence Exile Cunning tattoo. When did JD have it done? “In December,” he told KYwoman. Johnny added, “It’s from a novel by James Joyce.” That was not news to the Zone group, who promptly replied that it was from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. They were rewarded with a “Yes, that’s right,” a pleased smile, and a chance to inspect the tattoo more closely as Johnny Depp held out his arm. We thank KYwoman for sharing her Depp moment with us. To see a full version of the Witkin concert picture above, CLICK HERE, and for a picture of JD at the meet-and-greet, CLICK HERE. –Part-Time Poet