[Originally posted 8th March 2006;
While this post is not necessarily the "best" of Codex, it certainly is
one of the most popular -- at least if Google searches count for
anything. This post (and others on Hebrew tattoos) generates numerous
requests from people about Hebrew spellings for this or that word or
phrase, many of which I try to respond to when I have time.]
Believe it or not, one of the more frequent Google searches by which
individuals happen upon my blog is a search for “Hebrew Tattoos.” This
search, which appears to happen once every few hundred visits to my
site, leads readers to my tongue-in-cheek post “Posh Hebrew Tattoos, David! (Beckhams Inscribe their Love).”
I have also had individuals email me asking advice on Hebrew tattoos,
primarily wanting verification about the spelling of this or that word.
My own students also ask similar questions (the latest being just last
week).
This interest in Hebrew tattoos intrigues me. It obviously
piggy-backs on the popularity of tattoos in general, though I suspect
that the fact you have high profile celebrities like David and Victoria
Beckham, Madonna, and Britney Spears with Hebrew tattoos boosts their
popularity. And, of course, you have the religious crowd that likes
tattoos of a biblical character, whether Hebrew, Greek, or even Aramaic.
At any rate, after reproducing the Google search for “Hebrew Tattoos”
you will come across a number of web sites that specialize in tattoos,
even ones devoted to Hebrew Tattoos that want to cash in on the craze.
Most of these sites have sample pictures of actual Hebrew tattoos. What I
found troubling is the number of mistakes in these tattoos. As a public
service to any individuals thinking of getting a Hebrew tattoo, I
thought I would highlight some of the mistakes so that others may avoid
them in the future.
Hebrew Tattoos You Don’t Want
This first example of the Hebrew term for “God” makes a simple
mistake of confusing Hebrew characters that look similar (of which there
are a few!). The bottom letter on the tattoo is a samech (a Hebrew “s”) while it is supposed to be a mem (a Hebrew “m”). Another possibility that Yitzhak Sapir noted in the comments, is that the final letter is the Rashi script for final mem.
He suggests that “some Jewish figure who was uncomfortable writing out
the name of God changed scripts as a result.” While this is certainly
possible, it seems odd that the rest of the tattoo is standard Aramaic
square script. I am also not sure how many Jewish tattoo artists are out
there who know Rashi’s script! I think my explanation makes a bit more
sense. This tattoo is an example of a simple mistake made by someone who
was trying to match the letters from a picture or something (I get
quite a few papers from students who know a little Hebrew and try to
include Hebrew words but they confuse stuff like final mem and samech, resh and dalet, etc.). Either way, if you are going to get a tattoo, it’s probably better to use the same script for the entire thing!
This tattoo, which has a Hebrew word purported by the website I found it on to mean “freedom” (perhaps based on Lev
19:20?) has the vowel points shifted incorrectly to the left. As such
it is nonsensical. Moreover, as the comments to this post indicate, in
modern Hebrew this word (if correctly pointed) means “vacation” — which
I am pretty sure the individual who got the tattoo did not want
(especially considering the symbol of the Holy Spirit above it!).
This tattoo, which means “holy to the LORD/Yahweh,” has letters which
are either not drawn very carefully or confused (note the difference in
width in the second last character in the bottom word; the tattoo has
what looks like a dalet or resh, which it should be a vav) as well as incorrect vowel pointing.
This tattoo is supposed to say “in blood” according to the website
where I found it. The expression is not biblical Hebrew, but a modern
Hebrew phrase for “blood relative” or the like (see the comments by
Yitzhak Sapir). Of course, the tattoo is still incorrect since it is
missing the silent sheva after the resh (and the resh looks a bit like a yod). (If I was going to write “in blood” in Biblical Hebrew, I would simply do it as I have it on the bottom.)
This tattoo of the name of the God of Israel, “Yahweh,” is fine,
though the web page identified it as Aramaic. In fact, this is a
paleo-Hebrew script of the divine name.
There is nothing wrong with this Hebrew tattoo. I just thought it’s
funny because the word inscribed can possibly mean both “love” as well
as “leather” (some scholars suggest that there is a homograph which
means “leather” [see KB3]). It arguably occurs in Hosea 11:4 [perhaps]
and Song 3:10 [more likely]). Perhaps this can be taken as a warning
not to spend too much time in the tanning salons?! (Of course, in modern
Hebrew it clearly means love, and as I already noted, there is nothing wrong with this tattoo.)
The lesson here is that you cannot trust pictures of Hebrew tattoos
on the internet! Make sure to double check the spelling of the Hebrew
word you want tattooed!
Tips for Getting Hebrew Tattoos
If you are thinking of getting a Hebrew tattoo, consider the following:
First, think long and hard about getting a tattoo because they are
permanent (notwithstanding modifying tattoos or erasing them). If you
are set on the idea of getting a tattoo, think about getting a temporary
one first. Also think about where you put your tattoo. Based on the
experience of friends, I wouldn’t suggest getting a tattoo on any place
where your body may change drastically as you age (and women, beware of
tattoos on your stomach as if you ever get pregnant, your tattoo may be
stretched beyond recognition (and it may not go back to its original
shape — ask my friend!).
Second, if you are getting a Hebrew tattoo, make sure to double check
with someone who knows Hebrew (or Greek if you are getting a Greek one)
whether or not you have the proper spelling of the word. It would be a
bummer to get a tattoo like those above — the only consolation would be
that most people wouldn’t know you have a spelling mistake permanently
inscribed on your body!
Third, one thing to decide before getting a Hebrew tattoo is whether
or not to just use consonants (as Hebrew was originally written) or use
consonants with the Masoretic vowel pointing (the little dots and dashes
above and below the consonants). The vowel points were added to the
text of the Hebrew Bible in the early centuries of this era by Jewish
scribes called the Masoretes. While the vowel points represent an
ancient reading tradition, they are not original to the Hebrew text, so
you may not want to include them. (I personally wouldn’t include them if
only for aesthetic reasons)
Finally, make sure to go to a reputable tattoo shop!
As a side note, I don’t have any tattoos nor any intention of getting
one — and I hope that this trend will die down by the time my kids are
older! My primary problem with tattoos is that they are too permanent;
what you may think is cool when you are younger, you may later regret.
9th September 2008
I don’t know who Danielle Lloyd is; I guess she is some sort of
British celebrity. All I do know is that she — and her so-called tattoo
artist — doesn’t know a stitch of Hebrew. And she apparently doesn’t
know how to surf the web or google anything, since she went ahead and
got a major “Hebrew” tattoo without getting it checked out. Here is the
picture that is circulating on the news services (I have shifted its
orientation to better read the supposed Hebrew):
Danielle Lloyd's Incorrect Hebrew Tattoo
Not only is the tattoo gibberish; it isn’t written in Hebrew (i.e., the
language) at all! When I first looked at the pictures of the tattoo, I
couldn’t figure it out. It wasn’t Biblical Hebrew. I didn’t think it was
modern Hebrew. I was looking up words in my modern Hebrew dictionary
and starting to think that I shouldn’t be teaching Hebrew this semester!
Then I figured it out. The tattoo isn’t written in the Hebrew language,
but is English written with Hebrew letters! If you transliterate the
Hebrew characters into their English counterparts, voila!, you get the
supposed translation: “Only God can judge me, only God can judge me.”
What makes this even more
silly
utterly ridiculous is that the transliteration isn’t even consistent.
In the first occurrence, “can” is spelled qof-nun (קן) while the second
time it is spelled kaf-nun (כן). Not only doesn’t Danielle know Hebrew,
she apparently doesn’t even know how to spell “can” in English! (I won’t
even comment on the rest of the supposed transliteration)
If there was a prize or award for the dumbest tattoo, this should certainly win. I just can’t believe it… this is beyond stupid.
I’m going to begin my Hebrew class tomorrow by highlighting yet one
more benefit to learning Hebrew: so you can make fun of דם celebrities!
(Note to any rich celebrities reading this: I will gladly provide you
with the proper spelling for your Hebrew tattoo… at least for some
money and fame!)
Posted in Hebrew, Tattoos | 21 Comments »
17th July 2008
The New York Times has an article
on the tattoo trend among Jewish people. The article debunks the notion
that if you have a tattoo you may not be buried in a Jewish cemetery.
Despite the growing popularity of tattoos among Jewish young people,
Jews traditionally have been against tattoos, primarily based on the
injunction in Leviticus 19:28 (see this post for an interesting discussion of this verse from a Jewish perspective).
Most of the emails I receive about Hebrew tattoos come from
Christians, among whom there does not seem to be any qualms about
getting inked.
UPDATE: Check out Iyov’s sobering post here.
(HT Menachem Mendel)
Posted in Popular Culture, Tattoos | Comments Off
10th July 2008
People never learn. Think before you ink! I came across a couple more
examples of incorrect Hebrew tattoos. I can’t believe people don’t
double and triple check foreign tattoos with someone they know
understands the language before they get their skin scarred for life.
For more of my blog posts on incorrect Hebrew tattoos, click here.
The first example comes via The Aramaic Blog (the original tattoo is posted here). This nice looking tattoo is supposed to read “Yahweh/the LORD is my banner” and is more than likely taken from Exodus 17:15.
The first error with this Hebrew tattoo is all too common: the Hebrew
is written backwards. For those who do not know, Hebrew is written from
right to left, not left to right as English. Thus, this tattoo is
essentially gibberish. It means nothing. To add insult to injury, there
are also a couple spelling errors in the tattoo: there is an extra vav in the divine name Yahweh (יהוה) and the noun “banner” (נס) has an extra yod.
The second example comes from a google search. This poor fellow
went through a couple tattoo sessions to get a nice picture of a lion
head tattooed and then topped it off with what he thought was the Hebrew
name “Judah” (get it? “Lion of Judah”; see Genesis 49:9 and Revelation
5:5). The problem is that he should of double-checked his Hebrew since
it is written backwards and misspelled.
I’m not quite sure how he got the spelling wrong. It should be yod-heh-vav-dalet-heh (יהודה) and he has (backwards) yod-heh-dalet-vav-heh (יהדוה); he has the dalet and vav mixed up.
All this goes to show that if you decide to get a Hebrew tattoo, you
really need to get the spelling double-checked before you get it inked.
While there are a number of web sites that will do translations, I would
be careful with which one you use.
Since I first posted on incorrect Hebrew tattoos, I have got at least
half a dozen requests every week asking to double-check this or that
spelling. While I am not opposed to do this, I just don’t have the time,
so most of the emails have gone unanswered. My wife had a brilliant
idea, however. While I am not willing to take the time to check out a
spelling or provide the Hebrew for a tattoo for free, I may be persuaded
to do it for a very nominal fee. If you are interested, just send me an
email to “tattoos AT biblical-studies.ca” and we can talk.
Posted in Hebrew, Tattoos | 2 Comments »
22nd July 2006
Since first posting on Hebrew tattoos,
I have been innudated with requests for advice for proper spellings,
etc. I don’t really mind that much; but I find it quite surprising how
many people are thinking of getting Hebrew tattoos. In addition, every
once and a while I follow the searches for Hebrew tattoos that brought
people to my site to see if I can find more incorrect ones. I did this
just the other day and found quite a number of tattoos which had a
number of errors. So without further ado, here is another installment
of…
Hebrew Tattoos You Don’t Want
This tattoo is supposed to say “faithful” (from bottom to top), though the vowel pointing is incorrect (there is a segol — the three dots — between the alef and the mem, but no vowel between the mem and final nun).
I imagine the word that the poor individual was trying to write was
something like ×?ֹמֶן, though I am not certain. I personally don’t
think it looks very good vertically, and if I was going to put it
vertically I would write it top to bottom (as my example). I would put
it horizontally as indicated by my “Better” example (I would also lean
towards the word ×?מת if I wanted to indicate faithful).
This tattoo is supposed to say, “Beloved.” The word that the woman
was trying to have inscribed on her wrist (I believe) was the Qal
passive participle of the biblical Hebrew word for love, ×?הב. The
problem is that it was written backwards (remember, Hebrew is written
from right to left!). I am also not sure that this is the best word to
use if you want to say “beloved,” but that’s neither here nor there.
Now it seems as if “beloved” is a fairly popular Hebrew tattoo. If
you are looking for the Hebrew spelling, you have to beware of who you
ask. I found this image posted on the Christian Tattoo Association web board as alternatives for someone wanting the Hebrew for “beloved”:
The problem with this advice is that it is riddled with errors:
As it turned out, the fellow who posted this advice recognized his
error, but he never did repost a correct version (and you had to read
through a lot of posts before you saw his comment about the Hebrew being
backwards).
I have been asked a number of times for the correct spelling of
“beloved” — with most people wanting the beloved that comes from the
Song of Songs (e.g., Song 1:13, 14, 16, 2:3, 8, 9, 10, 16, etc.). In
English the term “beloved” is a unisex term of endearment. The word in
Hebrew, however, is not. The Hebrew word for beloved, דוד, is
appropriate only if you are referring to a male (the word also means
uncle). You shouldn’t really use it if you are referring to a female
(which was David Beckham’s mistake).
For a female term of endearment roughly equivalent to “beloved” I would
probably suggest ×?הובה, which is based on the Hebrew root for
love. I find that many Christians want to tattoo “beloved” in the sense
of “beloved of God,” i.e., loved by God. For this sense I would probably
suggest the passive form of the verb for love in Hebrew: ×?הוב. This
is what I would suggest:
The same fellow that gave advice on the Hebrew for beloved, also gave
some incorrect advice on the spelling of “child” in Hebrew on the same
web board:
This guy’s track record isn’t that great! I sure hope he isn’t a tattoo artist!
All this goes to show that you should be very careful before you
decide to permanently inscribe something on your body in a language that
you don’t know. Perhaps the Mishnah is correct in prohibiting tattoos
due to their lasting and permanent nature (see m Makkot 3.6).
Posted in Hebrew, Humour, Tattoos | 19 Comments »
9th June 2006
With the 2006 FIFA World Cup
starting today, I figured I should post something related to football
(i.e., soccer for those of us in North America). Then I thought, why not
profile the Hebrew tattoo on England’s celebrity skipper, David
Beckham? I have posted on David Beckham’s Hebrew tattoo before,
though I didn’t have a picture of it until recently (An individual from
Germany who wanted some advice on a Hebrew tattoo sent it to me). As
with many of the tattoos profiled in my previous post on incorrect Hebrew tattoos, David Beckham’s tattoo just doesn’t make sense. Here is a picture of the tattoo:
The words on the tattoo are taken from the Song of Songs 6:3 which reads as follows:
×?Ö²× Ö´×™ לְדֹּודִי וְדֹּודִי לִי הָרֹעֶה בַּש×?ֹּוש×?Ö·× Ö¼Ö´×™×?
“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine, he pastures his flock among the lilies” (Song 6:3)
While this is a very nice verse from the Song of Songs, it really
isn’t appropriate for a man to have tattooed on his body! First, the
word דֹּוד “beloved”
in Biblical Hebrew is a term of endearment for a man, not a woman. It
also can be used in the Bible to refer to your father’s brother (i.e.,
uncle), which is the primary meaning in modern Hebrew. It is not unisex
like the English term “lover.” Second, the masculine reference is
underscored with the last phrase of the tattoo: “he pastures his flock
among the lilies.” The Qal participle “pasture” is masculine and clearly
refers to a man. Some even argue that the image here is of a man
kissing the tender part of his lover’s body. Thus, Beckham’s tattoo is
totally inappropriate if he meant it to refer to his wife. And if he
meant it to refer to his uncle, then it’s just sick! When it comes right
down to it, this passage is really only appropriate for a woman to say
to her male lover. It would have to be modified signifcantly to make it
appropriate for a man to say to his female lover.
The moral of this story is, if you are a celebrity sports star with a
lot of money and are thinking about getting a Hebrew tattoo, make sure you get it checked out by someone who knows what they are doing!
In fact, as a public service to all rich celebrities, I would be more
than willing to advise them on their tattoos, or on anything related to
the Hebrew Bible! That reminds me, do you want some more tutoring, Nicole?
Posted in Sports, Tattoos | 5 Comments »
8th March 2006
Believe it or not, one of the more frequent Google searches by which
individuals happen upon my blog is a search for “Hebrew Tattoos.” This
search, which appears to happen once every few hundred visits to my
site, leads readers to my tongue-in-cheek post “Posh Hebrew Tattoos, David! (Beckhams Inscribe their Love).”
I have also had individuals email me asking advice on Hebrew tattoos,
primarily wanting verification about the spelling of this or that word.
My own students also ask similar questions (the latest being just last
week).
This interest in Hebrew tattoos intrigues me. It obviously
piggy-backs on the popularity of tattoos in general, though I suspect
that the fact you have high profile celebrities like David and Victoria
Beckham, Madonna, and Britney Spears with Hebrew tattoos boosts their
popularity. And, of course, you have the religious crowd that likes
tattoos of a biblical character, whether Hebrew, Greek, or even Aramaic.
At any rate, after reproducing the Google search for “Hebrew Tattoos”
you will come across a number of web sites that specialize in tattoos,
even ones devoted to Hebrew Tattoos that want to cash in on the craze.
Most of these sites have sample pictures of actual Hebrew tattoos. What I
found troubling is the number of mistakes in these tattoos. As a public
service to any individuals thinking of getting a Hebrew tattoo, I
thought I would highlight some of the mistakes so that others may avoid
them in the future.
Hebrew Tattoos You Don’t Want
This first example of the Hebrew term for “God” makes a simple
mistake of confusing Hebrew characters that look similar (of which there
are a few!). The bottom letter on the tattoo is a samech (a Hebrew “s”) while it is supposed to be a mem (a Hebrew “m”). Another possibility that Yitzhak Sapir noted in the comments, is that the final letter is the Rashi script for final mem.
He suggests that “some Jewish figure who was uncomfortable writing out
the name of God changed scripts as a result.” While this is certainly
possible, it seems odd that the rest of the tattoo is standard Aramaic
square script. I am also not sure how many Jewish tattoo artists are out
there who know Rashi’s script! I think my explanation makes a bit more
sense. This tattoo is an example of a simple mistake made by someone who
was trying to match the letters from a picture or something (I get
quite a few papers from students who know a little Hebrew and try to
include Hebrew words but they confuse stuff like final mem and samech, resh and dalet, etc.). Either way, if you are going to get a tattoo, it’s probably better to use the same script for the entire thing!
This tattoo, which has a Hebrew word purported by the website I found it on to mean “freedom” (perhaps based on Lev
19:20?) has the vowel points shifted incorrectly to the left. As such
it is nonsensical. Moreover, as the comments to this post indicate, in
modern Hebrew this word (if correctly pointed) means “vacation” — which
I am pretty sure the individual who got the tattoo did not want
(especially considering the symbol of the Holy Spirit above it!).
This tattoo, which means “holy to the LORD/Yahweh,” has letters which
are either not drawn very carefully or confused (note the difference in
width in the second last character in the bottom word; the tattoo has
what looks like a dalet or resh, which it should be a vav) as well as incorrect vowel pointing.
This tattoo is supposed to say “in blood” according to the website
where I found it. The expression is not biblical Hebrew, but a modern
Hebrew phrase for “blood relative” or the like (see the comments by
Yitzhak Sapir). Of course, the tattoo is still incorrect since it is
missing the silent sheva after the resh (and the resh looks a bit like a yod). (If I was going to write “in blood” in Biblical Hebrew, I would simply do it as I have it on the bottom.)
This tattoo of the name of the God of Israel, “Yahweh,” is fine,
though the web page identified it as Aramaic. In fact, this is a
paleo-Hebrew script of the divine name.
There is nothing wrong with this Hebrew tattoo. I just thought it’s
funny because the word inscribed can possibly mean both “love” as well
as “leather” (some scholars suggest that there is a homograph [×?הבה II]
which means “leather” [see KB3]). It arguably occurs in Hosea 11:4
[perhaps] and Song 3:10 [more likely]). Perhaps this can be taken as a
warning not to spend too much time in the tanning salons?! (Of course,
in modern Hebrew ×?הבה clearly means love, and as I already noted, there is nothing wrong with this tattoo.)
The lesson here is that you cannot trust pictures of Hebrew tattoos
on the internet! Make sure to double check the spelling of the Hebrew
word you want tattooed!
Tips for Getting Hebrew Tattoos
If you are thinking of getting a Hebrew tattoo, consider the following:
First, think long and hard about getting a tattoo because they are
permanent (notwithstanding modifying tattoos or erasing them). If you
are set on the idea of getting a tattoo, think about getting a temporary
one first. Also think about where you put your tattoo. Based on the
experience of friends, I wouldn’t suggest getting a tattoo on any place
where your body may change drastically as you age (and women, beware of
tattoos on your stomach as if you ever get pregnant, your tattoo may be
stretched beyond recognition (and it may not go back to its original
shape — ask my friend!).
Second, if you are getting a Hebrew tattoo, make sure to double check
with someone who knows Hebrew (or Greek if you are getting a Greek one)
whether or not you have the proper spelling of the word. It would be a
bummer to get a tattoo like those above — the only consolation would be
that most people wouldn’t know you have a spelling mistake permanently
inscribed on your body!
Third, one thing to decide before getting a Hebrew tattoo is whether
or not to just use consonants (as Hebrew was originally written) or use
consonants with the Masoretic vowel pointing (the little dots and dashes
above and below the consonants). The vowel points were added to the
text of the Hebrew Bible in the early centuries of this era by Jewish
scribes called the Masoretes. While the vowel points represent an
ancient reading tradition, they are not original to the Hebrew text, so
you may not want to include them. (I personally wouldn’t include them if
only for aesthetic reasons)
Finally, make sure to go to a reputable tattoo shop!
As a side note, I don’t have any tattoos nor any intention of getting
one — and I hope that this trend will die down by the time my kids are
older! My primary problem with tattoos is that they are too permanent;
what you may think is cool when you are younger, you may later regret.
Posted in Hebrew, Popular Culture, Tattoos | 38 Comments »
This was in the news yesterday (here, here, and here, among others), but I was too overcome with emotion to post it until today! Jewish soccer star David Beckham and his “posh” wife, Victoria Beckham, got matching Hebrew tattoos on their sixth wedding anniversary. The tattoo is apparently from the Song of Songs 2:16:
דודי לי ו×?× ×™ לו “My Beloved is mine and I am his”
There are actually web pages devoted to Beckhams’ tattoos!
I have mixed emotions about tattoos. I personally have no desire to
get one and I sure hope this tattooing craze is spent by the time my
kids grow up (OK, I guess they’re not so mixed!). The problem with
tattoos is that they are just too permanent. I wouldn’t
like to know what I would have tattooed on my body when I was 18! I’ve
had students ask me (with increasing frequency) how to write this or
that in Hebrew or Greek for a tattoo. I’ve been tempted to spell
whatever they ask as × ×‘×œ (fool!). Perhaps I should just quote
Leviticus 19:28 and send them packing: “You shall not… tattoo any marks
upon you: I am Yahweh” (I recall seeing this verse actually used as an
argument against modern tattoos; I assume that the prohibition was due
to some association with cultic practices of Israel’s neighbours rather
than tattooing itself).
