Who Saved You? And Where?

Remember the Girl for Free? Today's tattoo, while not quite as horrible, is right up that alley.

This guy went for double trouble. On the left was supposed to be "Saved by Grace", while on the right "John 3:16" in Hebrew. I can tell you right away that his tattoos say nothing of the sort.

The John tattoo is something weird. Quite unreadable, but it definitely doesn't say John nor Yohanan (as the book of John is called in Hebrew). It says Yagan or Saban or maybe even Anne...

The Grace tattoo, however, is far more interesting. See, there isn't always correlation between Hebrew and English word meanings. And so, while "Saved" in English has all sorts of meanings, Hebrew uses different words for save (rescue) and save (put money aside). I bet you can tell which word our victim used.

Basically, instead of "Saved by Grace", this tattoo reads along the lines of "Saved by Mercy [in her bank account]". Yeah, "Grace" is wrong too.

Now, this is how you properly write "Saved by Grace" in Hebrew:

And "John 3:16":

Dictionary Tattoo is a Painful Commitment

I've warned once or twice about using a dictionary for your Hebrew tattoo, but do people ever listen? To further drive the point in, I proudly present: Dictionary Guy.


The guy wanted his Hebrew tattoo to say "Love, Commitment, Pain" and looked the words up in a dictionary. He was probably surprised when it turned out to be such a long tattoo.

Well, the length should have been a clue. This tattoo has all the possible synonyms of the selected words. It also features creative punctuation and total misunderstanding of the letter Yod. Overall, this Hebrew tattoo is a big, huge, painful mess.

On the right is Commitment. It's written bottom-to-top (nice touch!) and reads:
Commitment; Obligation

In the middle is Love, and yes it says all that:
Love; Beloved; Cute; Buddy; Zero (in tennis)

On the left is Pain:
To hurt someone; Pains me


This is how you actually write "Love, Commitment, Pain" in Hebrew. Short and sweet.


I've written the words with commas between, as it makes much more sense than reading it as a sentence.

Want to learn Hebrew and avoid this kind of blunder? Here are some books:
Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew
Hebrew for Dummies

Puzzle Girl Gets Random Tattoo

For some, getting a plain old Hebrew tattoo is not enough, they just have to be creative. Check out Puzzle Girl here, can you tell what she was going for?


This genius of creativeness got 3 random words, but she couldn't write them right-to-left like normal people, oh no. She wrote them from top to bottom and didn't bother to space the words apart. It looks like one of those how-many-words-can-you-find puzzles, who cares for a game?

Curious about her original Hebrew words?

Mashal - either Story or He Reigned
Tsedek - Justice
Racham - Either Egyptian Vulture or a bastardized form of Mercy

Did I say random?

Spiritual or Gangster?

Today we have yet another example of Christians making up their own Hebrew words. Remember Tshalach? This one is an apple from the same tree.

The unfortunate Hebrew tattoo was supposed to say "Worship with arms extended", which according to the victim is "Yadah" in Hebrew:


Of course, "Yadah" doesn't mean anything of the sort. It means either "threw [stones]" or "her hand". It doesn't matter, though, as the tattoo doesn't say "Yadah" - it says "Yarah" which is quite a different word. A word that means "Shot [a gun]" in Hebrew. Oh well, at least now it does have arms in it.

Now, see how similar the letters Resh and Dalet are? That's how your "Yadah" turns into a "Yarah".


Thinking of getting a Christian spiritual tattoo? Be careful not to end up with incriminating gang ink instead!