Tag Archives: epigraphy

Danielle Lloyd’s Hebrew Tattoo Disaster

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Master (soon to be Doctor) Tyler Williams of Codex (of whom I am a big fan) has found what I believe to be one of the most tragic tattoos of all time:


Its owner, Danielle Lloyd (a British fashion model currently amidst some scandal or another) apparently did not check her sources well before inking this down her back.

The text reads as follows:

אונלי גוד קן ג”ודג ם, אונלי גוד כן ג”ודג ם
‘wnly gwd qn g”wdg m, ‘wnly gwd kn g”wdg m

Now, those of you who read Hebrew, stop scratching your heads for a moment and take a closer look at the English transliteration.

Still not seeing it?

Let me add in some vowels for you:

אונלי גוד קן ג”ודג ם, אונלי גוד כן ג”ודג ם
‘only god qan judg m, ‘only god kan judg m

Yes. It -is- saying what you think it is. This tattoo has transliterated the English phrase “Only God can judge me” twice and incorrectly.

I believe that on Codex, Pat McCullough commented best:

“Well, only God can judge her.”

-Steve

New Aramaic T-Shirts at Aramaic Designs

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Liz is Aramaic Designs’ newest team member, and has already begun to craft things of beauty by drawing inspiration from the language. If you would like to commission her for a tattoo design or art piece, please email in to us here for a quote.

Her artists page at Aramaic Designs can be found here and the following t-shirt designs are now available immediately:

Pretty soon, these will also be available as tattoo stencils with both flash art and color-reference.

Peace,
-Steve

Tattoo Goof: How Not To Write In Syriac

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Once again, my Bad Aramaic Senses tingled as I searched the net for new Aramaic tattoos to critique, and lo and behold I come across the following:

Once again, the above portion of the image is protected under Fair Use for criticism educational purposes. Click for the full-sized image.

The above is taken directly from 1st Corinthians 16:24:

ûkhûvî `am kulkûn bamshîkhâ’ yeshua`
“And my love (be) with you all in the Christ, Jesus.”

It’s a direct quote from the Syriac Peshitta, so the Syriac is perfect; however, we see another big problem: The writing is sloppy, and plagued with errors.

Every letter in this tattoo is in a final form (i.e. the letter forms that are only supposed to be at the very end of a word) with no proper interconnections displaying.


The diagnosis? The owner of this tattoo probably looked up 1st Corinthians in an online Syriac Bible, but did not have proper Syriac support installed on their computer. As a result, none of the letters rendered properly.

This is a great example of when you have something correct from a reputable source, but are missing something critical. Whenever you get a translation in a language that you don’t know, always always always get an image file from a professional, and always always always get a second opinion!

Peace,
-Steve

eBay Travesty: Syriac Manuscript Chopped Up

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Why? Why did this have to happen?

For those who read The Aramaic Blog, do you remember the medical manuscript that I mentioned earlier? Well, a single page of the text came up on eBay just the other day from the same seller, and it seemed very fishy to me. So I emailed them:

To Whom It May Concern,

May I ask why this individual leaf has been sold separately from the rest of this manuscript as listed earlier this month?

Has there been any attempt to preserve the entirety of the text? Have any scholars had time to discern any historical significance from the relic in its original state before these pieces have been separated?

Thank you for your time,
—
Steve Caruso
Aramaic Designs, & The Aramaic Blog

To my dismay, I received the following reply (emphasis mine):

Dear [Steve Caruso],

We have not found a buyer for the entire text, which is why we are auctioning it off 1 page at a time. We are offering the book, which has 27 pages left, and the cover, for $23,000.

– goldrelics

For those of you who know my opinions about manuscript conservation, this has greatly disheartened me.

Below is the contact information for “goldrelics.” I encourage and implore everyone who has similar sentiment about the preservation of ancient texts to contact them and express your displeasure in the strongest terms possible, and pass this information on to others:

Email: ebay@goldrelics.com
eBayStore Listing: http://myworld.ebay.com/goldrelics/

Where I find I lack the finances to preserve this manuscript myself, I am contemplating putting together a fund to salvage what is left of the document. People who would be willing to donate towards this cause please contact me through Information@AramaicDesigns.com. If there is enough interest, I’ll set up an account to handle any funds contributed in a responsible, transparent fashion. If not.. well, I can at least say that I tried.

Peace,
-Steve