The Tragic Tale of Smelly Sarah

Today's victim, a girl named Sarah, wanted a tattoo of her name in Hebrew, and she wanted to compose it herself.

Sarah knew that Hebrew has no vowels, and her name should be composed of the letters S, R and H. She carefully chose her letters, and ended up with this tattooed in Hebrew on her back:


Well, this is someone's name alright, but it doesn't say "Sarah". Instead, it's this guy's name:
Grey Moomin Mug - Stinky
Those of you familiar with the Moomin TV series, will recognize the above critter as Stinky, or in his Hebrew name - Serach.

In fact, both S (Samekh) and H (Het) chosen by Sarah for her tattoo, are the wrong letters. The result can be read several ways, all of them describing stench. The proper letters for the name Sarah, as written in the old testament, are Shin and He.

Sarah's Hebrew tattoo is especially unfortunate, so let that be a lesson to you all. Never tattoo something on your body without confirming it first with a native Hebrew speaker. Disaster might be waiting right around your corner.

We've actually covered the name Sarah before, but here's a repeat. This is how you properly write Sarah in Hebrew:



12 comments:

  1. She's lucky that Serach is an awesome character.

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  2. I told her to stand on her head; mebbe that would help, but she refused, saying 'No that would DESTROY the meaning.' Clever girl. Still, all this just to hint "Buy me perfume, dear."?

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  3. But please - give us a reference of where the tattoo came from! I find it very interesting.

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  4. אני מקווה שאתה מבין עיברית כי לי אין כוח לשבור את הראש בכתיבה באנגלית. הפוסטים שלך פשוט קורעים! המשך כך..

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  5. Looks like she made another mistake, because the first character looks more like a final Mem than a Samekh

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  6. The tattoo can alos mean "surplus" (serach) or "(he) sinned" (sarach)

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  7. Hi
    גַּבְרִיאֵל gabriel

    מרקוס marcus

    Just wana check.. Is this translation correct?

    =)

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  8. Yep, you've got your Gabriel(with nikkud) and Marcus(without nikkud) right. If you want Gabriel also without nikkud, it'll be: גבריאל

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  9. WOAH.. THANKS a million..

    Happy New year too! =)

    Cheers!

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  10. Serach was the name of Asher's daughter in the Bible.

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  11. if read backwards, like too many wrong hebrew tatoos, it could be also "חרס", or look-alike "חרם"... not a very positive option..

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  12. Man, the Hebrew is bad enough. I hope she didn't get the character next to the Hebrew because she thinks it's real Japanese.

    For anyone who might be wondering about that, that symbol is the so-called "G-dsend" symbol from the TV show "Heroes." It is NOT real kanji. It's a stylized RNA helix from NBC's graphic design department!

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