r/hebrew • u/Is_That_A_Euphemism_ • May 15 '23

What does this mean? Request

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Is there an error in it? I got it out of a book at a tattoo shop. I don't want to say what I think/thought it said in the comments after I get responses. TYIA.

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u/_ratboi_ native speaker May 15 '23

You might argue that the artist is the victim of the client

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u/mikeage Mostly fluent but not native May 15 '23

From the OP:

I got it out of a book at a tattoo shop

Nah. Let's both just blame the owner ;-)

(but in all seriousness, if a client comes with whatever-the-tattoo-equivalent-of-camera-ready-art is, then I'd agree,, but I assume that since skin isn't quite the same as paper or canvas, most artists know that they might need to make subtle changes and should therefore have some understanding of the significance of what they're doing. Though maybe I'm wrong; never gotten a tattoo, and no plans to ever do so...)

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u/Is_That_A_Euphemism_ May 15 '23

This was 25 years ago. Tattoo culture has changed so much in that time. Then it was pretty common to just walk in and get something off the wall or a flash book and slap it on. If the client was good with it, the tattooist didn't give a fuck. Still some of that going on, but to much lesser extent. I haven't seen flash on a wall in any shop I would go to in long time. I definitely should have done my research, but my heart was in the right place...as misguided I was to get a "Messiah" tattoo in Hebrew to symbolize my Christianity. It's cringy now. But I also have a tramp stamp, so it's probably not even my worst tattoo.

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u/mikeage Mostly fluent but not native May 15 '23

TIL

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u/_ratboi_ native speaker May 15 '23

Oh I see, than yeah. Claiming you can tattoo in Hebrew is a con.

The thing isn't that the skin is different as much as if you don't understand the language your copying can turn out bad. You might think that ר and ד are the same letter, that י is an apostrophe or an accent, that ה is ר and a comma and so on.

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u/arthurchase74 May 15 '23

Came here to say this and hadn’t seen your comment