numbers in different languages symbols for tattoos

#NUMBERS IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES SYMBOLS FOR TATTOOS SKIN#

The reverse can be seen in the European sailors who, starting in the 16th century, accumulated tribal skin designs after spending time among the indigenous peoples of North America and the South Pacific. One of their earliest uses was what psychologists call “social branding.” Five thousand years ago, for example, ancient Egyptians would tattoo slaves to set them apart from non-slaves when the former were taken out to be sold so marked, the slaves constituted an “out group,” a label imposed by force from without.

That effort can still succeed, even if the tattoos have errors.Īs a practice, body modifications like tattoos have been around as long as humans have. People risk embarrassment because foreign-language tattoos give them a permanent invitation to contemplate cultures and ideas beyond their own. But for thousands of people-including my yoga teacher-getting a foreign script etched onto the skin is part of a universal search for significance and sentimental attachment. For them, blunders of spelling and meaning betray a vapid, commodified globalism that forever marks the victims. Laughing at tattoo “fails” has become a favorite pastime of academic linguists and internet trolls. Photos: Tattooing the name of God on your body as an act of faith and defiance

I didn’t have the heart to tell the yogi that he’d permanently inked his skin with nonsense. I looked again, and sure enough, there were the four Arabic letters that make the sounds “s,” “l,” “a,” and “m”-the letters needed to spell “peace.” But they were disconnected, which explains why I couldn’t read it: Arabic must be written like cursive, each letter attached to the next, or else it is unintelligible. “It means ‘peace’ in Arabic!”Īs a professor of Arabic, I get regular requests to verify tattoos, or to admire the ones people already have. There was a tattoo, but not of anything recognizable, at least not to me. “Look!” In the dim candlelight of the yoga studio, I squinted at the place he’d indicated. My yoga instructor’s eyes lit up as he bared his forearm.

Numbers in different languages symbols for tattoos