Hebrew tattoos

Hebrew tattoos

There are a billion places to debate over getting a tattoo if you're Jewish.

This particular thread is about Hebrew tattoos. And why it's not a good idea to get them if you don't know Hebrew or at the very least know your tattoo artist knows Hebrew.

There's a site dedicated to bad Hebrew tattoos. I know a bit of Yiddish, not a lot, I'm learning it. Certainly not enough to tattoo myself in it. I came across this tattoo as an example of a good Hebrew tattoo.

I have no idea what the image below the Hebrew means. It took me awhile to decipher the Hebrew, though.

What they were going for was: אני לדודי ודודי לי

pronounced "ani l'dodi v'dodi li"

meaning "I am my beloved and my beloved is mine."

What they got was: יל ידודו ידודל ינא

pronounced: "yil y'dodo y'dodl yina"

meaning absolute gibberish

The letters are right, and actually pretty well executed (dalets and reshes could be confused, but that's a common issue), but they're backwards. You'd have to read them the way English is read -- left to right -- rather than the way Hebrew is read -- right to left -- to make sense.

So, fair warning. Don't get a Hebrew tattoo unless you know what you're doing.