What amor fati means
The claim is stronger than acceptance. Acceptance says: this happened, resisting is wasted energy. Amor fati says: this happened, and I will it; I'd sign up for it again. Not because everything is good, but because everything that happened is now part of the only life you actually have, and hating a piece of your own life is hating yourself on layaway. It's retrospective love with prospective courage.
Where it comes from
The phrase belongs to Friedrich Nietzsche. In Ecce Homo he calls amor fati his formula for greatness in a human being: wanting nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. In The Gay Science (section 276) he makes it a New Year's resolution: to see what is necessary in things as beautiful, and so to be one of those who make things beautiful. The idea is older, though; Nietzsche was reading the Stoics. Epictetus taught wishing events to happen as they do happen (Enchiridion 8), and Marcus Aurelius wrote love-letters to whatever the whole assigns. The modern revival runs through Ryan Holiday's Stoic movement, coin merchandise included.
Amor fati vs memento mori (the tattoo question)
The two phrases travel together, on wrists especially. Memento mori (remember you die) supplies the deadline; amor fati supplies the attitude. One reminds you time is short, the other tells you how to hold what time actually delivers. As a pair they're the Stoic operating system in four words, which is why the tattoo parlors stay busy.
How to actually practice it
Start smaller than fate: practice on inconveniences. The canceled flight, the rain on the moving day; the exercise is finding the sentence “good, because...” and meaning it (good, because the airport hour became the reading hour). Journaling the day's reversals in those terms is the classic method. And daily exposure beats resolution: the Stoics reread their maxims every morning because the attitude decays without maintenance. That's the design behind daily readers; our 365 Days of Philosophy gives Nietzsche and the Stoics their weeks with exactly these ideas one page at a time, and the free Stoicism guide covers the wider toolkit.
The honest caveat
Amor fati is a practice for reversals and ordinary suffering, and it has limits at the extremes; loving fate was never meant to mean calling catastrophe good or staying passive inside it. Nietzsche's own life was pain-filled, which is precisely why he needed the formula. Use it as fuel for carrying what's yours, never as a script for what others should feel.
Common questions
What does amor fati mean literally?
Latin: 'love of fate' (amor, love; fati, of fate). Philosophically it means willing your life exactly as it unfolds, past included, rather than merely tolerating it: Nietzsche called it his formula for human greatness.
Is amor fati Stoic or Nietzschean?
The phrase is Nietzsche's; the practice is older. Epictetus taught wishing events to happen as they happen, and Marcus Aurelius practiced welcoming what the whole assigns. Nietzsche sharpened the Stoic acceptance into outright love, and modern Stoicism adopted the phrase back.
What is a good amor fati tattoo pairing?
It's most often paired with memento mori: one phrase for mortality, one for attitude. Together they read as 'time is short; love what it brings.' Placement aside, knowing both sources (Nietzsche, and Horace/the Stoics behind memento mori) is the better half of the tattoo.
How do you practice amor fati daily?
Rehearse on small reversals: name the day's inconvenience and complete 'good, because...' honestly. Journal it, and re-expose yourself to the idea daily, since the attitude fades without maintenance; that's what Stoic morning reading (ancient or modern daily readers) is for.