Arabic Tattoos

First off is Angelina Jolie who it seems has already filled every inch of her skin with some writing or other. Her latest addition is this Arabic tattoo:



Taking a closer look we can make out the Arabic word العزيمة (al-‘azeema), meaning “the determination” or “the firm will” on her right forearm. Jolie certainly strikes me as a woman who knows what she wants – so it seems that this tattoo is quite fitting. While the Arabic script chosen for the tattoo is pretty plain, Angelina (or one of her assistants) has at least done enough research to ensure that the word is spelled correctly – no slip ups here.

Rihanna has fourteen known tattoos all over her body – from head to ankles. She even has created a tattoo by her own – including a little umbrella on her tattooist arm. She has started her romance with ink in 2006 when her first music note was created.


”Freedom in Christ\” in Arabic

An Arabic phrase on her ribcage area reading Al Hurria fi Al Maseeh or in English “the freedom in Messiah.

Well, be that as it may. What is certain, is that the phrase should have read correctly الحرية في المسيح (al-horriya fi al-maseeh), or “the freedom in the Messiah”. Not all is lost, though, since there still is ample space to insert the Arabic article AL before the word Messiah. So, Rihanna, another visit to the tattooist?

Zoe Saldana has two Arabic tattoos, one on her back and one on her foot. Unfortunately, both of them don’t appear to make much sense. The one on her back is a strange jumble of letters that aren’t connected properly and don’t form any intelligeble words:



The tattoo on her foot is pronounced “ureed yu as’alha”, where only the first and the third word are Arabic words meaning respectively “I want” and “I ask her”. Together they would mean “I want to ask her

Christina Perri is probably most famous for her song “Jar of Hearts”. It’s a well-known fact that she has something like 50 tattoos,Her Arabic tattoo says “maktoob”, which means “it is written” and refers to the idea that everything is pre-ordained by God (or in some other sense), because it has been “written” in the book of life already. It’s similar to the notion of “fate” or “destiny” in English.

The actress Zoë Kravitz is famous for her part in the movie X-Men: First Class and her role in the TV series Californication (and also for being the daughter of singer Lenny Kravitz). She has quite a few tattoos, among them one in Arabic on her left upper back.


Zoe Kravitz’s Arabic Tattoo – Let Love Rule

The tattoo is grammatically incorrect. Literally, it says “let the love the rule”, where “rule” could equally mean “camp, or base” and co-incidentally, is the word that has come to be associated with terrorist group Al-Qaeda, which derives from Qaedat al Jihad, meaning “the base of jihad”. I am guessing that the tattoo was meant to say “let love rule”, which is the title of one of her father’s songs. In its current form, the Arabic writing doesn’t make any sense whatsoever, as “qaeda” does not mean “rule” in the sense of e.g. ruling over a country, but more in the sense of grammatical rule.
A better translation would have been:
دع الحب يقود” or “دع الحب يحكم

Leona Lewis won’t reveal the exact meaning of the Arabic writing which she sports on her left wrist. She shares the tattoo with her ex-boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa whom she has known since age 10 and dated for many years until their breakup in 2010.However her tattoo says "أنا لحبيبي وحبيبي لي ", Which mean "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" .

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a better picture of the tattoo on Colin Farrell’s back. While there certainly seems to be some kind of Arabic writing, it’s impossible to make out what it says.


Colin Farrell also has a tattoo on his wrist, which says الحرية (al-hurriya), meaning “freedom” in Arabic. The tattoo is in a nice calligraphic style, so full marks for Colin on this one:

Moving on to Zlatan Ibrahimović, the top football player:



For those learning Arabic, the tattoo might be pretty confusing. Fear not, the solution is simple: the inscription is simply a transliteration of Ibrahimović’s surname – in Arabic إبراهيموفيج (ibraaheemoofeedj).
Since the Arabic letters don’t correspond one-to-one with our English letters, the tattooist (or someone who speaks fluent Arabic) had to choose something that is as close as possible to the actual pronunciation of the name Ibrahimović. For example, there is no “v” in the Arabic alphabet. The next best thing is the “f” sound.
Maybe the egocentricity demonstrated by Ibrahimović’s choice of word is not to everyone’s taste. But, at least the tattoo is spelled and written correctly.

Zayn Malik is quite a favorite among female fans of the band One Direction. As to his Arabic tattoos, the first one is located on his chest and simply spells the name “Walter” with Arabic letters. Apparently, this is the name of his grandfather – quite a sweet thing to do to remember a close family member.


His second tattoo in Arabic is somewhat of an odd one. While it is normal to simply spell non-Arabic names with Arabic letters and not to translate them, it is a little weird to do the same with normal language. In fact, Zayn has written “bee troo too hoo yoo ar” on his collar bone. Confused? Well, this is what it sounds when you spell “be true to who you are” in Arabic. To tell the truth, I would have preferred it if this phrase had been translated into proper Arabic rather than simply to write the English sounds with Arabic letters