I'm not an expert on Tattoo's by any means but to get a tattoo down the side of your torso 2/3 days before a huge game is nothing short of idiocy! Hope he get's the scab ripped right off when he dives or comes for a cross.

Surely this will not have healed in time for Thursday night and in which case will hinder his performance.

Walter Smith must've tore him a new one when he heard.

I got a tattoo on my chest and could feel it pull and seep even just tryin to scratch the back o my noggin, he'll surely be in agony reachin for crosses and divin across the ground.

Silly Lawdee

What a fud!!!

Walter tore him a new fud?

Thats impressive!

Looks like it hasn't been terribly well done, what does it say?

Not too sure what it's meant to say but apparently some of the words are in the wrong order. Hence why he took the picture.

quis does non effiego mihi plato mihi validus

whats does not harm me makes me stronger

Do you think he means Syphilis?

according to latin experts it is a lot of gibberish and doesn't mean anything remotely resembling what it is supposed to.

If that was to decrease his mobility and lose the game for Rangers, the headlines just write themselves.

Bandaged up with ointment on it

it actually translates as anyone does not effiego me street me mighty*

what a numpty


*(according to an internet translator which is good enough for me to point and laugh)

Romanus eunt domus

Did he try and shag it?

It was the internet translator that produced the alleged Latin in the first place. I'm a Latin student, and I can assure you the phrase is complete gibberish. Go to http://www.translation-guide.com/free_onli...sh&to=Latin and type in "What does not break me makes me stronger". This is a phrase from the German philosopher Nietzsche, and is presumably what the tattoo is meant to say. Click on the translate button and out comes "Quis does non effrego mihi planto mihi validus".

Remember the "Romans go home" scene from Life of Brian? This is more or less what we've got here.

Word by word:

Quis - who, as a question. It can mean "what?" as a question but in the sense of "what man?". "What thing?" as a question would be "quid". What is required here is the relative pronoun ("what" in the sense of "that which") and it should be should be "quod".

does - the translator has simply left this word in English. It is not Latin.

non - not. This is correct. Hooray.

effrego - This is problematical. It is meant to say "break" but is not actually a Latin word. It looks as though it is meant to be "effrango", which means not just "break" but "I break out" or "I break away". I say this because the perfect (past) tense of "effrango" would be "effregi" - "I broke away". But "effrego" is not real Latin.

mihi - "me" but in the dative case, so it means "to me" or "for me". It could be correct for certain verbs whose objects are in the dative case, for example "he threatens me" would be "mihi minatur" but this is not the case with "effrangere". Ironically the best word here would be "me" - exactly the same spelling as in English.

"planto" - it has been reported that the tattoo says "plato". Either it has been misreported or the tattooist dropped the "n". In Latin Plato is the name of the Greek philospher (429-347 BC, and a disciple of Socrates) just as it is in English. "Planto" can mean "make" in one sense, but not the sense intended here. It generally means "set out", "plant" or "propagate from cuttings". And again it is 1st person singular indicative active, so "I propagate from cuttings" and definitely not "makes".

mihi - as before.

validus - strong or powerful, not "stronger". That would be "validior". In any case "fortior" would be a better word for "stronger" in this context.

These online translators can be extremely dangerous. Even with modern languages their output is usually gibberish. Their second best use is with a text you need to read but which is in a language you don't know. Using the online tool to turn it into English can give you a general sense of what the original means but will also remind you just how rubbish they are. Their first best use is on memos from senior management. Turn them into French, then from French into German, from there into Serbo-Croat, Serbo-Croat into Icelandic, and finally back to English. Sit back and enjoy the memo as it was meant to be.

Latin is a particuarly difficult language to translate into. It's full of traps and hidden meanings, and the exact meaning of a word is often dependent on the context. Machine translation is hopeless for this.

If anyone is considering a tattoo in a language they cannot read, or even a motto on their Bebo page, they really need to get it checked by an expert they can trust. Preferably more than one expert. For Latin the classics department of your nearest university is the best bet. Give them a call and ask to speak to a Latin expert. Classicists are generally not stuffy and love being called on to do this sort of thing. After all there's not much else we can do that's actually useful.

It actually says 'Strachan is a legend'

I considered writing to Rangers when I heard this, he should be find heavy, this is not on I think everyone know and is unhappy Borat does his voodoo to wind people up, using the pope language to write on yourself shows no dignity in my mind. If he wants to use latin then go to latin america and become a latintino

he better not no dive for saves tonight

What a joke. You guys think the tatoo will affect his performance, today you will see another top drawer performance from McGregor. You lot really are major fuds

So you think he should be writing in latin?

dont realy care what it says,maebey it translates into why the feck did you nick the perfume

Maybe he'd shagged the tatooists wife/daughter/pet dug/mother/granny?

Pope is germanic, so is you. Latin language makes most of English roots. Thats life.

and the problem with that is what?

The ignorance in this post suggests a possible whoosh. At least, I sincerely hope so.

All of the above shurley?

Talking of awful tatoos has anyone seen that wee dick Calum Bests? Truly awful.

I may invest in some shares in a tatoo removal clinic, no doubt in 20 years time all these daft neds will be queuing up to get 'QUID PRO QUO YA BASS' lasered off.

Aye, its a whoosh, Daddy Bear is a very, very funny satirical poster!

I didn't mean you btw but:

I don't think he should have necessarily got the tatoo but perhaps it was just a spur of the moment thing before the biggest game of his life, and there was no way it was going to stop him from diving.

"When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they can smell the last burd I shagged "

And with that up popped the fish known as the great Scottish trout, Wendy Alexander

I feel it's worth pointing out that Latin is the language of the Roman Empire, and was first spoken in Latium (Lazio today), the region immediately surrounding Rome itself. The language spread with the Empire over the years and it was only in last 200 years or so of the Empire - which had lasted 800 before that - that it became associated with Christianity. Historically, Latin is far more the language of the pagan pantheon of the Romans that included Jupiter, Mars, Mercury etc.

It's a dead language, but one that most European languages have a root in, whether tenuously, as in German, or very strongly, as in Italian.

It's like shooting fish in a barrel though. Satirising OF fans is not really required, they do that for themselves.