The footballer David Beckham has had new tattoos imprinted on his arms,
complete with Latin tags. One reads perfectio in spiritu, ‘perfection in spirit’, the other ut amem et foveam, ‘to love and to cherish’, translated into Latin from the Solemnisation of Matrimony in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. What is going on?
Tattoos have a long history going back to 11th-dynasty Egypt (c.
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