My Latin is pretty basic, but it's enough to tell that what you have is complete nonsense. A better translation would be nihil manet in aeternum, but I suspect there is a more concise consecrated expression.
But why settle for a Latin phrase that may or may not say what you think it does when you could have an English one that says exactly what you mean?
someone should write a paper on "tattoo questions to lj-linguaphiles" and all that it entails, including the psychology of angry responses, motivations for getting the tattoo, ... it's a pretty juicy topic.
you wonder? why wouldn't they. english is very popular in some places, like japanese is in the US. in any case, i saw a specific example somewhere, that may have been hanzismatter, may have been engrish.
I've seen botched English tattoos on what I presume were fellow Germans. They give me an opportunity to feel smart and superior, so that's fine. (Actually, 99,99999% of tattoos in any language or style do that to me, so just imagine how I enjoy myself in public swimming pools...)
Question: Could your example be read as "ONLY GOD (may, should, shall...) JUDGE ME?" "As in "God give me strength", meaning "may God give me strength", not "God! Give me strength!" (I think it's called Subjunctive mood.)
That is honestly a good question. Probably for the same reason people get asian symbols tattooed (is that correct?) on them. Since we grew up with the english language it looses some of it's romance to us, where other languages are more inticing?
Why is "romance" so much more important than the meaning of the words and the emotional resonance they have for you? I think I would have an easier time understanding the choice of a foreign language if people tended to choose terms that don't have concise English equivalents or whose connotations are widely different. For instance, a friend of mine got the tattoo 混沌. This is expression is often rendered into English as "primordial chaos", but some philosophers (notably Zhuangzi) have put a more positive spin on the concept than that translation suggests; the word "chaos" or a symbol like the eightfold arrow wouldn't have had the same meaning at all
( ... )
It's a highly person thing; I wouldn't know where to start. Think about why you're getting this tattoo. What are you trying to express and why is this the best way to express it? What are the advantages to incorporating this sentiment into a tattoo? That is, what can you do with a tattoo that wouldn't be possible with any other means of expression?
But why settle for a Latin phrase that may or may not say what you think it does when you could have an English one that says exactly what you mean?
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The man going for the Gujurati swear word "banchod" might get "defenestrated nuns eat cookies by the limelight."
See, now that's a great tattoo. :-)
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ONLY GOD JUDGE ME
I laffed.
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Question: Could your example be read as "ONLY GOD (may, should, shall...) JUDGE ME?"
"As in "God give me strength", meaning "may God give me strength", not "God! Give me strength!"
(I think it's called Subjunctive mood.)
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Maybe I could put the head on one arm and the vast and trunkless legs on the other?
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