Please help a very embarrassed Klingon Warrior.....

[YourAverageKlingon]

Greetings from a new warrior passing through the rites of ascention!

I know this is going to be a "shame on me moment", but I am asking for honest help from the Star Trek Community.

About 3 weeks ago apparantly I went into a tattoo parlor that I cannot remember while I was under the influence of some certain drugs. I woke up a few hours later and found this on my arm:

http://s360.photobucket.com/albums/oo48/slyvia_altima/Klingon%20Warrior%20Tattoo/

I am very happy with the tattoo, but I cannot locate where I had it done as apparantly I paid cash and woke up at my home. All I need to know is what is says below the Klingon Empire crest. I do not want to walk the streets as a "laughable warrior of the Empire!"

Here are pictures. I took the best ones I could with my cell phone. If you need better, I will try to get more. Just please help tell me what it says. I cannot remember at all and it is upsetting. All I can help you with is that the text looks to be The Next Generation Dialect.

Thank you, fellow warriors in advance. May the thoughts of Kah'less guide you.

[tesseraktik]

Well, it's very hard to make anything out in those photos, but I'm afraid it looks a bit like a random symbol sequences to me; too many words with two letters and several with just one (which never really occur in tlhIngan Hol, unless you count single-digit numbers, which these aren't), words beginning with vowels (again, this never happens in tlhIngan Hol), and some symbols don't resemble and pIqaD glyphs at all (for instance, there's one recurring glyph there that resembles a wishbone).  Also, it seems to contain some strange glyph combinations that don't appear in English or tlhIngan Hol (for instance, there's a word beginning with mgh).

[QorvaS]

Quite a cool looking tattoo though.


QorvaS

[Abbot Nej vIt]

Firstly, though too late for the original poster, let this be an abject lesson; DO NOT, ever, get a tattoo while under the influence of any mind altering substance! Reputable tattoo artists generally will not work on you in an altered condition in the first place, but still. Being an avid collector of tattoos this is one of my most important personal rules about being tattooed. I say this not to belittle the OP, I'm just saying...

That said, at least the tattoo looks great. In fact, were it not for the unfortunate lack of documentation as to what the quasi-pIqaD might say, I would call that awesome. As to what it actually says, I can not begin to guess. Frankly,  I am not entirely sure it is all pIqaD (Written Klingon).

It may even have come from a blury screen shot of some Klingon signage, or a display on a monitor that may or may not have had any meaning in English.

So here is my suggestion... Ask someone else to take the pictures for you (you did a pretty good job considering it was a cell phone and you apparently took them yourself), then find the KLIpIqaD font set online, and D/L. Next set up a word document and begin the process of typing in the characters that you can make out. Once complete you can then change the font to a more conventional type and see what you have. This could help let you know if it is text in English using Klingon lettering or if it is meant to be tlhIngan Hol (the Klingon language), and, hopefully, what it says. If it is written in tlhIngan Hol, you will have to purchase (or find) a copy of the Klingon Dictionary and translate for yourself from there.

Worse case scenario, every language evolves and changes. Characters (where written), words, sounds, meanings, and so on, can transform between cultures and periods of history. So, perhaps you have a passage containing great Klingon wisdom, forever memorialized upon your flesh... but written in a dead tongue. In which case you may have a piece of history there on your arm.

maj! {Good}...