Fall of the Righteous

Today's victim wanted a biblical Hebrew tattoo, a quote from Proverbs 24:16, "For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of calamity". He looked it up and all, and still this is the result:


It's not fully visible, but what can be seen is spelled correctly, except the whole thing is written backwards. Most likely a copy/paste Photoshop accident.

I've said it before, and I'll repeat for the newcomers: Never trust Photoshop with your Hebrew, as it always reverses Hebrew.

Some of the other image and text editors can do that too, so it's always recommended to verify before inking. Just post your image on Yahoo! Answers and ask what it says. If you got it wrong, you'll be told so.

For those interested, this is how the verse is supposed to go:



The Cross Of Misspelled Virtues

I've had quite a time deciphering this recent Hebrew tattoo that was kindly pointed out to me by Reut. Can you guess what it says?


Well, the first word that stands out is the one on the bottom, "Hochma" - wisdom in Hebrew. Yes, it's written backwards, but if you've been reading this site long enough you're surely used to that mistake by now.

The middle word made me scratch my head and wonder what's going on. It sort of reads "Hioa" which isn't a real Hebrew word. In fact, it is supposed to be "Ometz" - courage. The letter Vav has nikkud attached for reasons unknown, making it look like two letters, the Mem looks very much like a Het and the Tsadi drifted up and attached itself to the next word! Oh yeah, and it's backwards too.

The word on top, "Koach" - strength, is backwards and has the leftover Tsadi from the previous word, making it into gibberish.

All in all, this is a tattoo designed to draw out a "HUH?" from any Hebrew speaker. Luckily, the letters can be easily blacked out and the whole thing forgotten. The victim made one wise choice regarding this tattoo - he made the background black!

Okay, now this is how you'd write "Wisdom Courage Strength" correctly in Hebrew:

Mind, I wrote it out horizontally. If you're planning a vertical tattoo, remember that Hebrew is written right to left, and so the rightmost letters go on top.

Tombstone Girl and her List of Dead Relatives

What better way to remember your dearly departed than a Hebrew tattoo with relevant names and dates all over your back? Everyone around you now has to remember them too!


Tombstone girl here obviously thought it was a bright idea, but she didn't invest too much time to obtain the correct lettering. As a result her tattoo (the Hebrew part) reads:

Lila daughter of Raniel son of Abrahab (Daniel son of Abraham)
25 of Sayar (25 of Sivan - a Hebrew date)
Porsha Lerach (Korach)
RIP

Morbid much? If you're going to be a walking memorial, at least spell it right...

Disastrous Salvation Ink

This Hebrew Tattoo is pretty fresh, just came across it last week. The victim was going for a biblical reference "God of my Salvation", straight from Isaiah 12:2.


"God of my Salvation" - El Yshuati in Hebrew, are two words. Do you see two words in this tattoo? Right.

This is not the end of it, though. The letter Tav in Yshuati was somehow switched for a He. The letter Vav (the U sound) looks almost like a Resh. It's all a big mess.

Now why this Hebrew tattoo went wrong, I have no idea. It's a biblical verse, for god's sake! You can find correct references very easily.

This is how "God of my Salvation" is originally written in Isaiah 12:2:


If you can't tell the difference between this and the victim's rendition, you should think twice before inking it on. I mean it!

Forever Is Here, And It Brought Friends

Check out this fine ink job. The victim was going for a dubious old lady message in Hebrew "In My Heart Forever Young"...


Well, she got more than she bargained for. Way more. And I mean that literally - there are simply too many words there!

More to the point, this Hebrew tattoo actually reads:

Heart of mine in
Always: Forever, Eternally, Evermore
Young

Of course, this misses the mark completely, and is the result of careless automatic translation - with no concern for any extra synonyms that might (and did) occur. Grammatically incorrect too. Still, for some reason I like it. The banal phrase unintentionally got turned into a poem of sorts.

I'd suggest the following for the Hebrew rendition of "In My Heart Forever Young":


It literally means "Always young in my heart" and should only be used for a female!