A d F o n t e s

(Latin: "to the sources")

Worst Tattoo Ever

I’ve seen some pretty dumb tattoos in my time–like this one, this one, or this one (“stomach of blood”? what?!)–but I saw among the most ridiculous ones today in the grocery store of all places:  A young woman had, tattooed on the small of her back, the words “veni vidi vici.”  It means “I came, I saw, I conquered” in Latin, and if one knew nothing more that that one might think it was kinda cool…though upon further reflection it’s pretty darn strange.  Its location on the lower back begs me to ask what was seen and conquered, or by whom.  Perhaps I don’t want to know.  And what makes it a even wierder is that those words belong to none other than the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar himself, and they describe his defeat of Pontus (note comment); Ok…well what the heck does that mean? 

October 7, 2007 - Posted by | Uncategorized

7 Comments »

  1. Isn’t it actually Caesar reporting to the Senate after his defeat of Pharnaces II of Pontus?

    Comment by Seumas | October 7, 2007 | Reply

  2. Partially correct (thanks for the comment). I just checked Suetonius, and he had a series of triumphs beginning with the Gallic one and concluding with the Pontic one, and it was in the Pontic one where the words words “veni vidi vici” on an inscription were brought through the city (i.e. not before the senate).

    Thanks for making me look at that again.

    Comment by JD | October 7, 2007 | Reply

  3. […] Justin D. has definitely seen “the worst Latin tatto ever here.” […]

    Pingback by This Week In Blogs « Sets ‘n’ Service | November 17, 2007 | Reply

  4. […] realized that the most popular hits on this blog come from my miniseries on terrible tattoos: here and here. I found a couple of new ones, so I thought I’d share […]

    Pingback by A d F o n t e s | June 25, 2009 | Reply

  5. […] realized that the most popular hits on this blog come from my miniseries on terrible tattoos: here andhere. I found a couple of new ones, so I thought I’d share […]

    Pingback by More bad tattoos « A d F o n t e s | June 25, 2009 | Reply

  6. LOL at the vini vidi vici tat!

    regarding the third one – its not stomach, thats not a ‘yud’, its a ‘reish’, means ‘blood-relation’ 😉

    Comment by Amir | September 20, 2009 | Reply

    • That makes a lot more sense. Thanks for that one.

      Comment by JD | February 4, 2010 | Reply


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