A question about tattoos

[Monniern]

Claire!

MANY thanks for your input. I'm going to forward this to my student. He's an
intelligent soul who will make a good decision for himself; moreover, I
think he'll be genuinely interested in the sites you've recommended for
background info.

Gratefully,

Nicole


On 9/5/09 3:45 AM, "Wilkinson, C" <cxwilkinson at GOOGLEMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Is it going to be in Russian or English?
> 
> I've got a line of a Pushkin poem tattooed in Russian around my left
> wrist and it used to draw a lot of comments from people in Russia,
> though mainly from people over the age of 40. A lot of the time I'd
> get asked why I did it and didn't I know it made me look like a
> criminal, partly due it being on my forearm. However, a lot of the
> time attitudes changed to amusement or good-natured bemusement when
> they realised it was a line of poetry. I've yet to see what they make
> of my more recent line from Mayakovsky's "Vo ves' golos", but it's
> above the elbow so can very easily be covered.
> 
> I know attitudes to tattoos have changed a lot in the last decade as
> they've become more mainstream (albeit arguably to a lesser extent in
> Russia than in the UK and US), but my instinct is that having "life"
> and "death" tattooed on one's forearms in any language is likely to be
> interpreted "cautiously" by many people. That said, if it means enough
> to him that he wishes to get it indelibly inked  on himself, he may
> not see this as a major drawback - it's certainly likely to be a
> conversation opener one way or another and he can always wear long
> sleeves to cover it if a situation arises in which it seems prudent. A
> quick Google search also suggests that English-language life/death
> tattoos are far from uncommon, with ambigrams particularly popular
> (e.g. http://www.whatsthedealwithyourtat.com/2008/08/whats-the-dea-4.html),
> which, again, may or may not be seen as a drawback.
> 
> You may want to take a look at
> 
http://www.tattooirovka.com/2007/02/12/znachenie_tatuirovok_zakljuchennykh.htm>
l
> or find a copy of D.C. Baldaev's "Tatuirovki zaklyuchennykh" (Limbus
> Press 2001 or 2006). There's also a list of acronyms used in prison
> tattoos available at http://www.tyurem.net/books/tatoo/abbr.htm.
> SMERT' is not on the list, but it does make me wonder if some people
> may ask "komu?" in response to seeing "death/smert'" on someone's arm.
> Finally, this article (http://www.tyurem.net/mytext/how/039.htm) may
> be worth a read and there's a link to a forum where tattoos can be
> discussed at the end of it.
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Claire

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------