Rihanna’s Sanskrit Prayer Tattoo

The sexiest of all Rihanna’s tattoos is probably the Sanskrit prayer that lines her hip, extending from her waist to just above her butt on the right side of her body. Rihanna’s hip tattoo was inked in 2007 and was meant to quote “forgiveness, honesty, suppression and control” from the Sanatana Dharma (a holy Hindu scripture) Bhagavad Gita 10.4-5. Unfortunately, Rihanna’s tattoo was misspelled and instead translates to “long suffering, truthfulness, self-restraint, inward calm, fear and fearlessness,” as we can see in Rihanna’s tattoo pictures. In addition to the incorrect translation, Rihanna’s tattoo on her side is also missing the rest of the original Hindu prayer, which reads “pleasure, pain, birth, death.” The Sanskrit tat is the third of Rihanna’s body tattoos and is also one of the largest she has, or longest at least. But what does this new tattoo say about Rihanna? We’re not sure, because it’s spelled wrong.

Sanskrit Prayer Tattoos and Celebrities

With this tattoo, Rihanna joins the ranks of several other celebrities who have been inked with tattoos representing the ancient sacred language of India, including David Beckham, Jessica Alba and Alyssa Milano. Oddly enough, Rihanna’s side tattoo isn’t the only misspelled Sanskrit tattoo out there. David Beckham’s forearm tattoo was meant to say his wife’s name, “Victoria,” but instead reads “Vihctoria.” Experts believe that misspelled Sanskrit tats like Rihanna’s hip tattoo are so common because a different combination of Sanskrit letters are needed to create the desired sounds in English. Linguists even go so far as to urge tattoo artists and recipients to do some research before getting a tattoo written in a foreign language.

Bang! Bang! Controversy

Rihanna’s Sanskrit tattoo was inked by New York artist, Keith “Bang Bang” McCurdy, who is responsible for many of Rihanna’s new tattoos. Take a look at pics of Rihanna’s tattoos; he looks very trustworthy. I’m sure Mr. “Bang Bang” is actually well-versed in the ancient language of India and simply slipped while inking Rihanna’s hip tattoo…all those damn dots and lines. Although Rihanna fans and foes are speculative of Rihanna’s tattoo meaning, Rihanna doesn’t seem to care much that her Sanskrit tat is spelled wrong. In fact, Bang Bang says that Rihanna’s hip tattoo is copied off of a necklace that someone important gave to her, so he doubts she’d care whether or not it’s spelled correctly. We already know that Rihanna loves tattoos and that all Rihanna’s tattoos are unique, so maybe she thinks her tattoo misspelling makes it even more unique? Who knows, but I think we can all agree that it’s sexy!