Hebrew Tattoos and Meanings

For nearly all individuals, the choice of body art carries a lot of symbolism. These tattoos originate from Northern Europe and Scandinavia as the people colonized Britain. Often, body art styles are also shown in other styles of art such as basic stone work or paintings. Imp tattoo styles are also identified as Gaelic tattoos. Numerous people pick out these patterns because they have a lot of . As for instance, Gaelic tattoos originate from Ireland and northern Britain where several basic fairy body art patterns originate from Scandinavia. Often, body art patterns are also shown in other kinds of art such as classic stone work or paintings.

One of the trendy designs is a Gaelic tie design as the tie will have several loops and these repeating cycles tend to symbolize death and multiple rebirths. In addition, the intertwined design brings together the symbols of faith, life, and even love. In fact, the loop design is so all-encompassing in Celtic art that it is universally even found in the portrayal of animals. Like any personal tattoo however, the actual meaning of a Gaelic design in body art is really a representation of the wearer.

For several individuals, their tattoos symbolize something from their past. Individuals want to pay homage to their ancestors and relatives. Irrespective of the occasion, if you pick out to get a body art, always spend time finding just the right tattoo artist with the eye and skill that will best fit your needs. It can be hard to do these tattoos properly. The body art artists will need a good eye, steady hand and careful placement of the ink lines.

Hebrew has its own hazards, due to the script’s special calligraphic demands. In English, an ‘A’ can be carelessly rendered and still be recognized as an ‘A’. Not so Hebrew characters which have precise lines, ticks, arcs, zigs and zags. It’s not hard to say what you don’t mean, if you’re not a skilled linguist. Britney Spears is reported to have had a Hebrew tattoo lasered off the back of her neck because of just such an error. She was trying to spell ‘God’, of which the Kabbalah suggests there are 72. Or is that 72 ways to go wrong?

Britney, of course, was following in the dangerous footsteps of her idol, Madonna, who had also taken on a similar tattoo, and who, perhaps, stands a better chance of dealing with the effects of the ‘God’ tattoo. It’s supposed to empower the bearer, to lend her grace, strength of mind, presence of faith, and most of all the courage to let the ego shrink to its proper place in the greater scheme of things. Deep thoughts like that are the reason why Hebrew is such a respected and sought after tattoo script.

Hebrew text dates back as far as the 11th century BC, when it closely resembled Aramaic. Both alphabets had the same letters in the same order, which is not surprising considering that they had both borrowed from the Phoenician alphabet. These languages had no separate numerals, but could be represented by letters. Today, of course, Hebrew speakers have recourse to the standard 1, 2, 3…etc.

By the 6th century BC, Aramaic had established itself as the international trade language in the Middle East, so Hebrews adopted it for their common discourse, calling it ‘square script’, or ‘Jewish script’. Old Hebrew survived as a liturgical language, and even as the spoken vernacular in a few conservative quarters. Then, around the turn of the 20th century, the Zionist movement pushed to re-establish Hebrew as a spoken language, and in 1948 it became the official tongue of Israel, where, today, over 5 million people speak what’s called Modern Israeli Hebrew. Around the world, another three million people are speaking this ancient language.

While we’re concerned more with Hebrew script than with the development of offshoots of the spoken language, it’s interesting to note how Jewish communities, wherever they were around the world in Europe, West Asia, and North Africa managed to preserve and protect older Hebrew vocabulary and linguistic structures in whatever language they were speaking. Yiddish, is the best example, the most widely spoken of all the Jewish languages, derived from medieval German dialects. Ladino is another language in the Jewish diaspora, spoken by the Sephardic Jews in Spain and Portugal. And Judaeo-Arabic is yet another.

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