Want to call yourself a celebrity? Get a Hebrew tattoo!

 

Chances are good that you've noticed the strange phenomenon spreading through the celebrity world – we can probably sum it up in one sentence: “Sexy tattoos out, Hebrew tattoos in.” The trend that began with international stars such as Madonna, Justin Bieber, Victoria Beckham (and Mr. Beckham of course) and even Britney Spears has recently gained traction amongst the general public.

So what exactly motivates so many people to tattoo Hebrew on their bodies? What makes sane people tattoo onto their bodies letters in a language they don’t speak? To find out, keep reading, the answer is up next.

It seems that there are many factors that led these celebrities to tattoo themselves with Hebrew letters. First of all, Kabbalah wisdom continues gaining popularity. For many people, Hebrew letters symbolize a connection with hidden powers and quite a number of athletes say that they feel that their tattoos give them spiritual and even physical strength. Many Christians claim that this is their way to connect to the Scriptures and Hebrew was Jesus’s language and the language that the Bible was written in. On top of all this, Hebrew tattoos strongly connect people to the Holy Land and communities in Zion. Unfortunately, sometimes when people want to get a tattoo, they use, for example, Google Translate; and sometimes something gets lost in translation…

It’s unclear why people would want to tattoo something on their body before fully clarifying that it is 100% correct, but Hebrew tattoo mistakes are not hard to find. One excellent example is Timothy, a 48-year-old Texan who wanted to tattoo “the father, the son and the holy spirit ” onto his body in Hebrew but in the end, tattooed the mistake, “ישוא, אב, רוח הקדוש” – which is kind of like “Jesoos, father, the spirit of a holy man.”

Another example is a girl named Julia who wanted to tattoo the Hebrew translation of the sentence “Lord give me strength” from top to bottom along her spine. Unfortunately, the tattoo artist was unaware of the fact that the Hebrew language is read from right to left and therefore tattooed the letters upside down. In addition, he thought that the letter Yud was a kind of comma. Not only this, but he also got confused between the letter Taf and Chet, and between Kaf and Mem, and in the end the tattoo that was left on Julia’s unfortunate skin was, “חמ ל' ןח םה'ולא” (Try to read this sentence backwards and discover what is written in place of the simple translation, “אלוהים תן לי כח”). A very sad incident indeed.

There is an entire website devoted to funny Hebrew tattoos - www.badhebrew.com.

These mistakes and many more could have been prevented. There is no reason for people to walk around for the rest of their lives with a sad and embarrassing mistake branded into their skin. This also goes for Israelis who were tattooed with a Chinese word meaning funny clown, for example, when they were sure that their tattoo meant health, peace, or happiness.

If you want a tattoo of a sentence or phrase in a foreign language, the translation staff at Trans-that translation company will happily receive your request. The translation of the tattoo that you have always wanted will be conducted by a native speaker of the Hebrew language so that you can be completely sure that your tattoo is in fact precisely translated and reflects exactly what you want to express.