My Hebrew Tattoo Idea
I want Naomi Teplow to design an arm band tattoo, in those beautiful hues of cobalt blue she uses in her Hebrew transcription artwork and her ketubot. Of course I want some of the other vibrant colors Naomi is famous for putting from Pallet to paper. The geometrical shapes, like the star of David, linked together by other symmetrical polygons framing a verse in Hebrew, mixed in with some images of nature…other than birds, fish or animals. I’m imagining an olive branch. All this surrounding the words, written right to left in Hebrew, from one of my favorite books of the Old Testament; The Book of Job
I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth
-Job 29:17
This verse in Hebrew, is also Hebrew poetry. It “rhymes” — not in the way English speaking poets, like Lil’ Wayne understand rhymes. Not like the Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss way either. Hebrew poetry, which was used throughout Scripture, sounds redundant when translated into English. However, in a line (stanza?) of Hebrew poetry, it’s necessary to use the subject (or some noun or verb?) twice, but use a synonym the second time. See:
I smashed the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth.
I think this is what it would look like, but I’ll take Petal Mashraki’s advice, in her article, Verify Hebrew Text Before Getting a Tattoo — and have it checked by a Hebrew speaker / reader / writer before putting ink to skin. I wouldn’t mind a few pairs of trusted eyes on that string of ancient symbols before putting ink to skin, lest it really read “ I think girls are ickey and have cooties”
I’m not sure what she will think of this request, because as Petal also justly warns her readers; tattoos are a bit religiously naughty from the Judeo-Christianperspective. Not so much with Catholics, but very much so with Seventh-day Adventists, right Natasha Polak? To give this tattoo an even more ancient Hebrew aura, I don’t want to include any animals. Jewish artists of old were forbidden to make sculptures (graven images) or drawings of fish birds or higher animals. Designs, plants, flowers, and as per my request, an olive branch with leaves should be okay.
Gripe as tattooless theophiles may, tattoos are more popular now than ever before in the last 5000 years, and are definitely here to stay. And now, the inks they use are so advanced, they easily compare to the vibrancy of the media Naomi and other non-skin artists use in their creations. Some tattoo inks glow in the dark and under an ultra violet light. Cool huh? As someone who is pro-tattoo, for men and women, and has had a couple of them for over half my life, I have two warnings:
1) You don’t get a tattoo, you earn one. Men have a lower threshold for pain, I admit, but like many other rights of passage, there is a certain level of pain involved in earning this possession.
2) Choose your tattoo carefully, you will have it as long as you live, longer in fact. I’m not sure if they get erased when we get our glorified bodies back at the Resurrection. However I can attest to the fact that they’re the only possessions I was able to keep through two divorces.
My ex-step-mother-in-law has had hers almost as long as she has been alive, since she is now pushing seventy-five. I’m sure that the three inch vulture, perched on a branch on her left shoulder blade, will be looking over the squirrel humping a rabbit, or is it a rabbit humping a squirrel –? Oh yeah, it’s a squirrel humping a rabbit because the other way around you wouldn’t be able to see the squirrel’s tail, tattooed over her right ankle, to her regret, for years to come.
Would you believe that every word of that paragraph above was true? Just let it be a lesson to you: If you are getting a tattoo, get one that you wouldn’t mind not out-living. Not that my ex-step-mother-in-law has any plans of dying soon to escape this indelible menagerie…No one who knows her can even imagine that scenario, because it would mean that she would have to stop talking.
Choose carefully, and translate properly -you will have this longer than you will live.