Alright tattoo forums, I know we haven’t had the best relationship when it comes to word tattoos. And I’ll admit, my long ass quote on my feet idea was dumb. So I’m glad I’ve come here first for all my tattoo ideas thus far.
That being said, what do you think of this.
I want a Latin phrase, however, I have reservations.
First of all, my thought on language tattoos is that you shouldn’t get a tattoo in a language you don’t know. I’ve seen so many tattoos that are mistranslated and just look ridiculous to people who actually know the language. However I’m well on my way to learning the language, so I think it will be a great motivator to continue. Second, I’m beginning to agree with some of you that long quotes don’t look good, and plus the longer it is, especially in Latin, it seems that the further away you get from your intended translation, so I was thinking something short. Something that I absolutely know the translation for.
I’m thinking either Animus est Invictus- The spirit is invincible, or Animus Invictus- Invincible Spirit, under my right collar bone.
I also want it all in caps and the U’s turned into V’s because in traditional roman carvings, that’s how they wrote the language.
What do you think?
Aw c’mon guy. Words are awesome. They’re what separates us from beasts. And these words are ancient, beautiful sounding, beautiful looking, and have a beautiful meaning. Surely it can’t be that bad can it?
Nevertheless, thanks for the opinion, and any more to come. You guys always make me second guess myself. Which is never a bad thing.
I’ll try to stay open minded and not be overly critical. To be honest, at least you’re not thinking about getting a long, run on quote. I’ve seen a couple of text tattoos under the collarbone that don’t look half bad so I think you’re idea would work ok with the right artist. That being said, I still agree with albert1500 about maybe getting an ancient looking image with the words incorporated. I still prefer just an image like reef said but if you integrate two words with a nice image that would work too.
I also want it all in caps and the U’s turned into V’s because in traditional roman carvings, that’s how they wrote the language.
If you do decide to get that particular phrase and would like to stick with the original Latinate structure, you’ll want to put the “est” last, so that it reads “animus invictus est.” Personally, I love the idea of making the u’s into v’s, since as you say, that’s the most proper translation. Best of luck to you, whatever you decide.
To me “ANIMVS INVICTVS EST” looks bad-ass, but to each his own. 🙂
If it were English, you’d be right. However, in Latin, the verb is almost always placed at the end of the sentence. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but sentences in Latin aren’t read left to right like they are in English; words are put together based on the declension/case/number/etc. they’re in, and read that way. If you want it to sound more “English,” then by all means, put “est” in the middle. But keep in mind that anyone who knows Latin will think you’re an idiot.
Bah. You’re right. This is why I came here in the first place, to make sure I was doing it right. While I think that if I was just getting some Latin because I thought it was cool, word order wouldn’t matter (because it often didn’t back then) I want it to be the most correct and traditional, I mean I even found a font that’s based on Trajan’s column, so the font I have is a font that actual Latin has been written (etched?) in. So thanks for the help there.
I’ve been thinking about it, why does the “est” appeal more to ya? I really can’t decide if I want all three words or just the two, lol.
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