Ning Diary: Dec. 19 - Latin tattoo

[Laura Gibbs]

Because of all the various Latin sayings and proverbs I have published on the Internet, and my general online accessibility, I get a lot of emails from people asking about Latin for tattoos, business cards, wedding rings, tomb stones, and so on.

Well, a few months ago this very nice fellow wrote me - he said: "I was deployed for 16 months to Afghanistan, during which time I became very close to a guy who was over there with me. I am now in the process of getting out of the army yet he has another deployment to face. We want to get a roman themed tattoo to match but I am having trouble finding an accurate translation of "Brothers in Arms". Could you please help me find an accurate translation of the phrase? I would greatly appreciate it."

I wrote back and suggested Inter Arma Fratres - based on popular phrases like "inter arma silent leges" or "inter arma silent Musae" or "inter arma caritas" (which was the original motto of the International Red Cross - although it was changed in 1961 to be something less Christian sounding: Per Humanitatem ad Pacem).

Well, this very nice fellow told me he would send me a picture of the tattoo when it was finally done... and sure enough this evening he sent me the picture (below). Doesn't it look nice? I cannot even count how many people I have written to over the past ten years about tattoos and such things, but this is the first time anyone has sent me back a picture. I think it looks great!