Wednesday, November 26, 2008 9:34:21 PM
Angelina Jolie's tattoos
Forget the metaphysical for a moment and consider the physical. The physical specimen of perfection that is Angelina Jolie. Now, bring back the spiritual element, which can be seen represented not only in her brilliant work on and off screen but is represented on her actual flesh.
Slogan/Saying—(nape of neck) “Know your rights” is a pretty straightforward comment, one Jolie lives by and campaigns to help others live by.
Khmer incantation—(left shoulder blade) these five rows of Khmer Jolie had designed in honor of her son, Maddox, and were inked for her by a Buddhist monk. The words are said to ward off bad luck and to avoid accidents (as cited in BBC News). The English translation is as follows:
May your enemies run far away from you.
If you acquire riches, may they remain yours always.
Your beauty will be that of Apsara (Khmer mythological celestial dancer).
Wherever you may go, many will attend, serve and protect you, surrounding you on all sides.
This tattoo covers the Japanese symbol for death—which Angie had originally found inspirational because it made her “live life to the fullest.”
Tiger—(lower back) Jolie got this tattoo in Bangkok from tattoo artist Sompong Kanphai, who “blessed” the piece by chanting an ancient hymn as he inked. She has reportedly said to feel her life was thereafter truly blessed, truly lucky.
This tattoo covers a window she had had done years earlier. Angelina explained (to host James Lipton and film and acting students, when she appeared on “Inside the Actors Studio”) that she removed/covered the window “because, while she used to spend all of her time looking out through windows wishing to be outside, she now lives there all of the time.”
American Indian symbols (?)—(lower back/dimple areas)
It is unclear what these two tribal symbols mean.
Cambodian coordinates—(left shoulder) the exact coordinates of her first three kids’ birthplaces are tattooed as follows:
N11 33 0 E104 51 00, N09 02 00 E038 45 00.
This covers a two-staged tattoo with much history: first there was a dragon with the name Billy Bob Thornton. After Jolie and Thornton divorced, she removed the name and kept the dragon. Now the dragon has been removed to pen down the new Cambodian coordinates tattoo.
Roman Numeral XIII—(inside left forearm)—evidently to show Jolie has no superstition issues with 13 as a bad luck number.
Quote—(left forearm) This tat is a Tennessee Williams line, “A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages.” She got this tattoo with her mother. Also interesting to me is how the actress and the six-degrees (or fewer) thing works here, with her having co-starred with Nic Cage in Gone in Sixty Seconds (wherein they were both wild) and with Nic having starred in Wild at Heart. Okay, it’s a reach, but I like it.
Moreover, Jolie finds significance in this piece she got after the making of Girl, Interrupted (for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, by the way): “I have a prayer for everyone when I see people who aren’t living fully, who aren’t happy. You can see someone in the grocery store who doesn’t look as if they fit in their life, and they have a dream they’re not fulfilling, and it makes me sad” (quoted from USA Today interview by Karen Thomas).
H–(inside of her left wrist)—is more commonly known as representative of two important men in her life, brother James Haven and fellow actor Timothy Hutton. Reportedly, Angelina had the tat done while she was dating Hutton, but since their break up (long since done and gone) now attributes the H to her brother.
(inside right forearm)—an Arabic phrase which translates to “Strength of Will.”
This tattoo covers up a tattoo she had gotten when with Billy Bob Thornton.
Cross and saying—(inside left hip) Jolie said she got the black cross the day before she married Jonny Lee Miller (back in 1995), a tat that was “…all symbolic, and…a good thing, nothing dark” (as quoted by USA Today writer Karen Thomas).
Next to the cross is the Latin statement, “Quod me nutrit me destruit,” which translates as “What nourishes me, destroys me.”
This tattoo covers a different black dragon tattoo she had gotten one night when she was drunk in Amsterdam; since she pretty quickly regretted that, she covered it with the above tat-combo.
Besides being an important collection when Jolie is set to do a nude or partially nude scene and the team has to cover the tats with make-up, the journal of images, symbols, and text chronicle typically happy, or good, times, she says. As reporter Karen Thomas of USA TODAY relates, Angelina Jolie uses her body as a diary and her tattoos as symbols of those good times as well as of moments of self-discovery and solution: “Usually all my tattoos came at good times…. A tattoo is something permanent when you’ve made a self-discovery, or something you’ve come to a conclusion about.”
Forget the metaphysical for a moment and consider the physical. The physical specimen of perfection that is Angelina Jolie. Now, bring back the spiritual element, which can be seen represented not only in her brilliant work on and off screen but is represented on her actual flesh.
Slogan/Saying—(nape of neck) “Know your rights” is a pretty straightforward comment, one Jolie lives by and campaigns to help others live by.
Khmer incantation—(left shoulder blade) these five rows of Khmer Jolie had designed in honor of her son, Maddox, and were inked for her by a Buddhist monk. The words are said to ward off bad luck and to avoid accidents (as cited in BBC News). The English translation is as follows:
May your enemies run far away from you.
If you acquire riches, may they remain yours always.
Your beauty will be that of Apsara (Khmer mythological celestial dancer).
Wherever you may go, many will attend, serve and protect you, surrounding you on all sides.
This tattoo covers the Japanese symbol for death—which Angie had originally found inspirational because it made her “live life to the fullest.”
Tiger—(lower back) Jolie got this tattoo in Bangkok from tattoo artist Sompong Kanphai, who “blessed” the piece by chanting an ancient hymn as he inked. She has reportedly said to feel her life was thereafter truly blessed, truly lucky.
This tattoo covers a window she had had done years earlier. Angelina explained (to host James Lipton and film and acting students, when she appeared on “Inside the Actors Studio”) that she removed/covered the window “because, while she used to spend all of her time looking out through windows wishing to be outside, she now lives there all of the time.”
American Indian symbols (?)—(lower back/dimple areas)
It is unclear what these two tribal symbols mean.
Cambodian coordinates—(left shoulder) the exact coordinates of her first three kids’ birthplaces are tattooed as follows:
N11 33 0 E104 51 00, N09 02 00 E038 45 00.
This covers a two-staged tattoo with much history: first there was a dragon with the name Billy Bob Thornton. After Jolie and Thornton divorced, she removed the name and kept the dragon. Now the dragon has been removed to pen down the new Cambodian coordinates tattoo.
Roman Numeral XIII—(inside left forearm)—evidently to show Jolie has no superstition issues with 13 as a bad luck number.
Quote—(left forearm) This tat is a Tennessee Williams line, “A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages.” She got this tattoo with her mother. Also interesting to me is how the actress and the six-degrees (or fewer) thing works here, with her having co-starred with Nic Cage in Gone in Sixty Seconds (wherein they were both wild) and with Nic having starred in Wild at Heart. Okay, it’s a reach, but I like it.
Moreover, Jolie finds significance in this piece she got after the making of Girl, Interrupted (for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, by the way): “I have a prayer for everyone when I see people who aren’t living fully, who aren’t happy. You can see someone in the grocery store who doesn’t look as if they fit in their life, and they have a dream they’re not fulfilling, and it makes me sad” (quoted from USA Today interview by Karen Thomas).
H–(inside of her left wrist)—is more commonly known as representative of two important men in her life, brother James Haven and fellow actor Timothy Hutton. Reportedly, Angelina had the tat done while she was dating Hutton, but since their break up (long since done and gone) now attributes the H to her brother.
(inside right forearm)—an Arabic phrase which translates to “Strength of Will.”
This tattoo covers up a tattoo she had gotten when with Billy Bob Thornton.
Cross and saying—(inside left hip) Jolie said she got the black cross the day before she married Jonny Lee Miller (back in 1995), a tat that was “…all symbolic, and…a good thing, nothing dark” (as quoted by USA Today writer Karen Thomas).
Next to the cross is the Latin statement, “Quod me nutrit me destruit,” which translates as “What nourishes me, destroys me.”
This tattoo covers a different black dragon tattoo she had gotten one night when she was drunk in Amsterdam; since she pretty quickly regretted that, she covered it with the above tat-combo.
Besides being an important collection when Jolie is set to do a nude or partially nude scene and the team has to cover the tats with make-up, the journal of images, symbols, and text chronicle typically happy, or good, times, she says. As reporter Karen Thomas of USA TODAY relates, Angelina Jolie uses her body as a diary and her tattoos as symbols of those good times as well as of moments of self-discovery and solution: “Usually all my tattoos came at good times…. A tattoo is something permanent when you’ve made a self-discovery, or something you’ve come to a conclusion about.”
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