Hello! My dad is sending me to study abroad in Ireland this summer (I am an American college student) because he is from Ireland and he believes it is important to connect with my heritage. I am planning on getting a tattoo to commemorate my time spent there. My idea was to get a very small pine tree (no more than two inches tall) in a hidden location. My hope was to have the number and placement of branches correspond with the Ogham characters for the word 'brave'. I was hoping to have the word translated into Irish and then into Ogham characters. I would then sketch out the tiny pine tree myself, turning the line characters of Ogham into more detailed branches. (I understand that I probably worded this poorly in a way that doesn't quite convey what I mean ) In this way, it would look like a pine tree, but not a perfectly shaped one and it would have a bit more deeper meaning. However, I do not know what the appropriate word for 'brave' or 'bravery' would be in the Irish language. And the only thing I know about Ogham is that it is read from the bottom up. I know this site and its contributors to be reputable so if anyone could help me out, that would be fantastic! Thank you!

^^ also I do not want to butcher the language or have anything lost in translation so I am open to any alternate ideas or help. Thank you, it's much appreciated!

Hi, elizabethwins. Welcome to the forum.

I can sort of visualise what you are aiming for. Sounds cool.

There are a few words for "brave" in Irish:

calma "stalwart, brave, strong"
misniúil "courageous, hopeful, cheerful"
cróga "brave, hardy, lively, spirited"
móruchtúil "stout-hearted, courageous"

Since ogham doesn't have any accent marks, I would recommend calma:



You can double-check it here.
http://nuacht1.com/ogham/?q=calma

_________________
Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Thank you so much for your help! The word 'calma' does not have many characters so it makes for a sparse tree but I would not want to use an accented word and mess up the ogham translation. Calma should work well! Can anyone be my second and third verification? Or lend me thoughts or advice before I take the plunge?

There isn't really a translation to confirm as far as Ogham goes. Just look up the letters and make sure they match.

But I do want to point you to some posts by Dennis King on his blog. He has done some creative stuff with Ogham.

With a branch:
http://nimill.blogspot.com/2009/09/ogham-raithni.html

A Japanese style calligraphic painting:
http://nimill.blogspot.com/2009/08/oifr ... -uair.html
http://nimill.blogspot.com/2009/07/ogha ... -liom.html

And just a search for the word.
http://nimill.blogspot.com/search?q=ogham

His blog is in Irish, but not understanding it won't really detract from some of the beautiful images he's posted.