Marc Jacobs is not perfect, but the word is etched–in a distinctly imperfect slant of capital letters–on his right wrist as a reminder of an acceptance mantra (“I’m a perfect being in a perfect world where everything that happens benefits me completely”) he learned in rehab. That’s just one of the fashion designer’s 33 tattoos, many of them inked by Scott Campbell, he told Fern Mallis during a wide-ranging conversation held last night at New York’s 92nd Street Y. As for his favorite, that would be the furniture. “A couch. A Jean-Michel Frank couch that is tattooed right here,” said Jacobs, patting his abdomen. “And ask me why a couch, because everybody does, and there’s no reason. That’s exactly the reason.”

The outline of a classic Frank three-seater is joined by a jubilant SpongeBob SquarePants, Oui magazine logos, a red M&M character, and the world “Shameless.” When Mallis asked about the proliferation of cartoon characters, including the Simpsons-ized likeness of the designer himself, he shrugged. “Well, kids on the beach like them. They’re colorful,” said Jacobs. “I think I see life in a kind of cartoony way, and I like colorful tattoos. I never saw tattoos as a dark thing, or ritualistic.” And he’s already thinking about his next one. “I was talking to my trainer today, and there’s this character on South Park called Manbearpig, and I think we might be fighting over which one of us going to get it.”

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