Madonna's Hebrew Tattoo

Madonna's Hebrew tattoo

Madonna, in one of her more recent music videos for the "Die Another Day" James Bond film, displayed a Hebrew tattoo on her upper arm.

The Hebrew script she chose to display did cause some controversy. She has the letters "lamed", "alef" and "vav" tattooed on her shoulder, but those letters don't form a Hebrew word. At first, it looked as though it were simply stylish gibberish - and many dismissed it as such, another flagrantly displayed international spelling mistake.

As it turns out, however, Madonna's tattoo had deeper meaning. Rather than simply being a word in Hebrew, it was one of the many names for God as written in the Kabbalah. Legend has it that each name of God in the Hebrew language has an empowering effect, gracing the speaker (or in this case, the bearer) strength of mind, presence of faith, the will to subdue the ego, and so forth - another reason why Hebrew tattoos are so popular today.