Well, she sure got it... and then she got some free extras on top!
It's a bit strange. The word "Love" (Ahava in Hebrew), is written perfectly well, and in a nice font too. Unfortunately, there are two extra Yod letters above it - that simply don't belong!
Not only that those Yods shouldn't be there, but they are also placed horizontally, while the rest of the tattoo is done vertically.
Maybe they're supposed to be initials? If the girl wanted to write initials, this is absolutely not the way to go about it, since even if we ignore the vertical/horizontal mismatch, the Hebrew language still has this concept called spacing, and it should be applied between any two words.
To compare, this is how you'd write "Love" in Hebrew, vertically. See what was left out?
EDIT: This Hebrew tattoo was confirmed by the owner herself to say "Rak Ahava" - Only Love. Now that it has been pointed out, I can totally see it.
Still, I wouldn't have guessed myself that was what it said, so this post continues to be archived under "Sloppy Styling" category.
יש מצב שזה "רק אהבה", למרות שזה מחובר...
ReplyDeleteA beautiful font, I agree, and just possibly the 'extra' yods are simply a stylistic flourish. Maximum, as we say, she can always let her hair down. This may just be the nicest bad hebrew tat so far. (Wait, it says "you'd..you'd love {me} Awww.
ReplyDeleteIt may also refer to God's (יי) love. Anyway, I actually think it's a beautiful tattoo...
ReplyDeleteLooks like quotes to me
ReplyDeleteI think it is either God's name - or perhaps actually a yud and a kuf, someone's initials.
ReplyDeleteIt's "רק אהבה", "Only Love", and I dedicate you Eyal Golan's song:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngM0tCoTiaI
The question, 'tachlis' ('in the final analysis') is whether she's happy with it? I've been known to overlook a spurious 'yod' or two if I truly love someone. let's file this one as: "Success, al ta'nai" ('conditionally') Far worse numbers have been tattoo-ed in our history. (You have her phone #, btw?)
ReplyDeleteI agree, it looks like רק אהבה
ReplyDeleteHuh, now that you guys mention it, it does look a lot like "Only Love" (Rak Ahava), quite unfortunately styled. What I said in the post about spacing - it still holds!
ReplyDeleteOH! Now I get it. That thing dripping down from the aleph is part of the kof. בסדר מותק, יצא בסדר
ReplyDeleteנכון - רק אהבה. הכל בסדר אבל נכתב בצפיפות חסרת אסתטיקה.
ReplyDeleteלגבי רחוק מהעין רחוק מהלב - זה רחוק מהלג שם ולא מהלנ זה לא נון אלא גימל
יי = god.
ReplyDeletemaybe she was going for "god love"
I read ut as double yod, meaning one of the ways to write gods name.
ReplyDeleteThis way the meaning is: god loves her.
Actually a beautiful one!
מרשים אותי כל פעם מחדש, איך את\ה מסוגל\ת לקרוא את זה?!
ReplyDeleteבתור ישראלי אני לא מצליח לקרוא חצי מהם... וברור שלא לפענך את מה שהם ניסו להגיד.
בלוג מצויין!
יי זה כינוי לאלוהים
ReplyDeleteאני לא רואה שום דבר בעייתי בקעקוע הזה, למעט כמובן המעשה האווילי בלקעקע לעצמך סמל יהודי/קבלי בעוד שהיהדות למעשה אוסרת על קעקועים.
הבלוג שלך מעניין, אבל אני חושש שלפחות בחלק מהמקרים (לצורך העניין, הפוסט הזה מהווה חלק) יש לך בעיית הבנה מסוימת, שלא לומר - בורות
@רק אני
ReplyDeleteOh, come on! You really see no grammatical problem with writing "God Love" that way?
Besides, it doesn't even say that, but a badly styled "רק אהבה" as was cleverly pointed out by the first commenter.
I've had my share of bad calls on the site, sure. This, however, isn't one of them.
Maybe they just meant "Ahava", "Love", but sometimes you get those weird symbols in the bible, so maybe she copied it from the bible. I think this symbol exists there.
ReplyDeleteשילוב של מילים בדרך שיוצרת את המשפט: "רק אהבה"- אומנם קצת קשה לקריאה בפעם הראשונה, אבל לאחר פעם או פעמיים זה מצליח לך. זה חלק מהקסם של הקעקוע הזה, אל תשפוט לפני שאתה מבין את הדברים, אומנם היו לך כאן כמה "יציאות" נחמדות, אבל בוא לא נסחף, טוב? אל תחפש דברים שלא קיימים
ReplyDeleteWhat you see here is a tattoo that was designed in a way that combines the two words "only love" (רק אהבה) with each other.
ReplyDeleteThere is no reference to god what so ever, only to the one great thing that no one should ever forget, and it is ONLY LOVE.
So, dear "Mr. Interpreter" who the hell are you to decide what belongs were?
I'm not saying that I'm innocent, I had a good laughter thanks to the אלועימ tattoo, but here... you kinda pushing it, don't you?
לא הולך במוח, אז בכוח?
Oh, and yeah, this is MY tattoo.
I'm an Israeli, my native language is Hebrew, which, by the way, I master perfectly, thank you very much.
And actually, I'll never ever ink on myself some foreign language, in case you wonder.
Go Marianna go! :)
DeleteHi Marianna,
ReplyDeleteI had no idea your tattoo read "Rak Ahava" until a commenter pointed it out. Let's face it, the combination is pretty and artistic, but not very readable.
אז סתם רעיון פרוע - לפני שאתה מפרסם וכותב שטויות - תבדוק קצת. תחשוב פעמיים. ולא שנפגעתי או משהו, הקעקוע שלי אהוב ואהוד ע"י כל אדם שראה אותו, כולל אותי. פשוט.. יצאת קצת אידיוט. הבלוג שלך באמת נחמד ומשעשע, עד ש.. וול, כמו שאמרתי- אם לא במוח אז בכוח.
ReplyDeleteאני חושבת שכתוב שם רק אהבה.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this design in various places, including Israel (on Israeli's).
ReplyDeleteIt does mean "Adonai ahava", even tough it's not really a thing.
The guy who did the Noah James tatoo did mean to put Ya'aqov on his body. It became Iakovos in Greek, then Jacomus in Latin, then Jacques in French and finally James in English. Jacob is the Equivalent in James. As a speaker of Sureth, my name is Ya'qub or Ya'quv in Christian Aramaic. He totally spelled it backward, though. יעקב
ReplyDeleteIt looks like: "god love".
ReplyDeletethe short way to write the name of god- יי.
It took me a while, but when I finally saw that small "רק" at the beginning, I actually thought it was a very cool, beautiful, and artistic tattoo. Bottom line - I don't think this tattoo belongs on this site.
ReplyDelete