More bad tattoos
I’ve 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 them.
These are from a “judeo-christian” tattoo site, which is a little ironic given that the Bible outlaws tattoos. It’s sorta like Christians who insist that putting a statue of Moses in a courtroom would be agreeable to Jews too. Yet I digress. It’s a pity to what extent religious zeal can bypass good judgment (but it surely makes for hilarious reading for the rest of us). I repeat my earlier claim: if you’re going to get shite in foreign languages put on your body, you’d better know what you’re doing. If you don’t, you could end up like this poor soul with the Hebrew entirely backwards.
Here’s another great one: It could’ve been a lot better if they didn’t bother to put the vowels in, but that they did makes it virtually incomprehensible. It’s a real mess:
This is hilarious: the fuzzy navel of truth?
Here’s another one: “I am giving birth again!!!” It’s (mistakenly) from 1 Pet 1.3, where God is the subject of the verb (…a divine claim by the tattoo-bearer, or is he pregnant…again…?).
Last one: this poor person is missing FOUR crucial words without which it makes no sense whatsoever: “IN NOMINE patris ET filii ET spiritus sancti.”
It’s too bad you can’t take these back. But man, it’s funny.
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I am a graduate student in Classical Studies in New York. The title encapsulates my outlook on life, and no doubt the blog’s content. I don’t have a particular focus–this is just an opportunity to take a break from life to think and dialog, though I’m sure my work and interests will inevitably be a major component.
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A d F o n t e s 
ἀναγεννάω – contracts don’t ever occur in texts uncontracted too!
Indeed!
Where in the Bible does it say tattoos are “outlawed”?
Isn’t she just trying to say “Father, son, Holy Spirit”, rather than, “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”?
Yeah….I don’t think so. There’s still some Latin missing.
Heya.
First off – nice blog! enjoyed a quick run through. yeah, just like many (i assume) i inadvertently stumbled here as the photo links on this page seem to have done well for themselves in Google’s flagging system.
On the one hand – they are hilarious.
On the other – I’d humbly offer a couple perspectives on this – I used to work in a tatto shop, and there are quite a few people who deliberately want shit inked on them backwards. Usually so it can stare back at them from a mirror. The text on the backwards guy reads “I for my uncle, my Uncle for I”, which is some old saying associated with the month alul and has all sorts of oldish meanings etc. So it sorta makes (some slight bit of) sense that its a deliberate mirror tat. Terrible Font work though!
the guy underneath i don’t find unreadable.. but it sure is retarded and downright ugly. Joshua down and Jehova across.. what he getting at? did he hit the triple word points smack in the middle there? I’ve seen prison tats better looking than this!
I actually really liked the girl with the ‘Father, Son, Holy Spirit Tat.” she should get a tracheotomy and smoke through, right at the top of the spirit!
Anyway, thanks for the random wall to holler on. sorry for the rant. delete it if you want. (obviously)
Ciao!
The Hebrew is not mirrored, it is spelled in reverse. If you looked at it in the mirror, the letters would be backwards. It should be “אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי” minus the training vowels.
It is the quote from SoS 6,3 used as the Jewish wedding vow. “I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine.”
Tattoo quote in the Bible: “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD. -Leviticus 19:28” Of course, like all Biblical passages, this meaning is disputable.
Honestly, some of the people’s comments here are as bad and uninformed as the original tattoo victims….
Thanks for the great page!
ἀναγεννάω
It’s not a mistake, it means “born again”, a common Christian term for being saved, accepting Jesus, etc.
http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/313.htm
No, anagennaw is an active form of the verb that means “I give birth again.” Trust me. The verb used in John, etc., is passive voice, which is important here.