A Word of Thanks.....

With the onset of Fall, I compose this note as the month of September is coming to an end.

I look around sadly at the long pants, long sleeves, and covered frames that, just a few weeks ago, were so much more interesting to behold.

I am filled with sadness.

The past month has been a record-breaker for Tattoosday. When we first spun off from BillyBlog, we garnered 120 hits in the first three weeks of our infancy.

Last year, I was amazed by my progress, in September '08 we racked up 13,351 hits.

And this September, when I anticipated a drop off from a record August, Tattoosday soared into uncharted territory, on pace to top 38, 000 hits on the last day of the month. This may not seem like a big deal, but blogging is often lonely, and the number of hits is often the only measure of recognition we receive.

So, the summer ink is running dry, but despair not, I will continue to spot tattoos, although perhaps not at the dizzying rate of the past few months.

I have a backlog of posts and a head full of ideas to keep us entertained as the leaner months loom.

I thank you all for your continued readership and participation. I am very appreciative of your support!

Bill Cohen

Return of the Sea God

The other day I was looking for some new materials and ended up on myspace. Let me tell you, that place has lots of Hebrew Tattoo pictures... the vast majority of them incorrect.

Today's feature is one of my new finds, and it also features an error we've seen before. Give some applause to God of the Sea!


This guy was keeping it simple, all he wanted was a single word "God". Unfortunately, somehow an extra space found its way into the tattoo, turning "Elohim" into "El Hayam" - God of the Sea.

How can a word like "God" be cut in half and still retain it's meaning you ask?

See, the original word "Elohim" means God, it's in a special multiple form to emphasize God's greatness. When it's spelled this way, you have no doubt which god is meant, it's the biblical God and no other.

Cut the frills away, and you're left with "El", aka god, no emphasis or capitalization needed. It can be used to refer to any god you like. Conveniently, the other part of the word transforms him into God of the Sea.

Edit: For Margy, who requested to see how God is supposed to be written in Hebrew:

You can write it in two ways. The one on top is what the featured tattoo was supposed to look like. People not practiced in Hebrew might not see the difference, but even spacing is crucial.

The bottom version is the one more common in modern Hebrew, I prefer to write God this way.

The difference between the two is the letter Vav, which reads here as the "O" in "Elohim". In this case it's an optional letter, you can choose whether to write it or not.

Beautiful Portrait Photography By Andrzej Dragan

Andrzej Dragan artist has a wonderfully gifted mind with a PhD in quantum physics and an amazing eye for creating a story within an a single image.

He is is on the list of two hundred best advertising photographers according to the prestigious magazine Lurzer's Archive and was nominated for the prize in Cannes lions in the area advertising photography.

Little Dead Riding Hood

I met Amy in Penn Station earlier this month and she agreed to share this, one of her eight tattoos:


Actually, she has since e-mailed me about her ninth, and I am waiting for a photo.

This tattoo represents an undead version of Little Red Riding Hood, which is Amy's favorite fairy tale.


She also likes zombies, so it seemed like a good match.

This tattoo was inked by T.J. Mcinnis at Mcinnis Tattoo Company in Providence, Rhode Island.

Thanks to Amy for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Which T is More Tempting?

Hebrew is not a straightforward language, it has its little quirks that have the potential to totally mess up your spelling. For example, lets observe the curious case of the letter T:

Yes, the diagram does not lie. There are two of them, Tet and Tav, pronounced exactly the same, yet they are not interchangeable.


Unfortunately, our latest victim was never informed of that fact...



The tattoo above is supposed to read "Pituy" which is Hebrew for "Temptation". See that Tet in the middle, prettily decorated? Too bad the word should be written properly with a Tav.

Well, any Hebrew reader who sees this will definitely be tempted to laugh...


Now, this is how you write temptation correctly:

Remember kids, before getting your Hebrew tattoo make sure that your spelling is correct! That is actually pretty easy to do for a one-word tattoo. Just plug your word into any online translator. If it isn't recognized, don't ink it.

Rita Moreno and The Muppet Show

Animal, the Muppet Drummer, plays drum so as Rita couldn’t sing! SO Hilarious!

The Best Movie Poster Mashups

B3ta had a contest with the rules being: Take any film you wish, and photoshop the scenery, characters or titles into the style of a famous movie poster for a different film... The results are awesome.