Monday, November 12, 2018

Getting the Work Done - Samuel's Latin Leg

Last summer, I spotted a man walking down Broad Street and I had to ask him about his tattoo, I had never quite seen words done like this before:


The tattoo reads, in Latin:
"Amen, amen
dico vobis,
nisi granum
frumenti
cadens in
terram,
mortuum
fuerit, ipsum
solum manet:
si autum
mortuum
fuerit,
multum
frustum
affert"
Samuel, who had this tattoo on his leg, translated this as "Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless a seed falls into the earth and dies, it does alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit."

This is from the Latin Vulgate, the late 4th Century translation of the gospels that became the was the Catholic Church's official text for centuries. The passage hails from the Book of John, Chapter 12, Verse 24. 

Samuel said he interprets this to also mean, "Kill your desires, get the work done and you'll prosper," noting that the sentiment is "as Buddhist as it is Christian."

The font used is a customized version meant to recall Gothic lettering and told me this was inked at Spike-O-Matic Tattoo (@spikeomatictattoo) in Madison, Wisconsin.

Thanks to Samuel for sharing his cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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