David Robert Joseph Beckham was born May 2, 1975 in Leytonstone, East London, the son of Ted Beckham, a kitchen fitter and Sandra West, a hairdresser. David had numerous tattoos on his body before he decided to get the Hebrew verse tattoo. In fact he is even notorious because of one particular tattoo done of his wife’s name in the Script language of Hindi that was misspelled by the tattoo artist quite innocently and accidentally, instead of Victoria it is spelled Vihctoria. Oops!

Anyways, even after that horrendously embarrassing experience, David still liked all of his tattoos including the corrected one. He also liked getting tattooed and planned to have something Judaic tattooed as a tribute at some time. Why? Because David Beckham’s maternal grandfather Joseph West, his mother Sandra’s father, is Jewish, and David has been quoted as saying numerous times about how the Jewish side to his family and it’s Jewish culture has had a positive influence on him; however, he is not known to actively practice Judaism or any other faith for that matter.

In his autobiography called My World, which was serialised in OK! Magazine, David was quoted as saying; “I’ve probably had more contact with Judaism than with any other religion. He also said that he has been to synagogue on a number of occasions. “I used to wear the traditional Jewish skullcaps when I was younger, and I also went along to some Jewish weddings with my grandfather.” More recently, in David’s autobiography My Side, he revealed that his father Ted also had a Jewish link, albeit a footballing one, as he used to play semi-professionally for Wingate Finchley.

Whether or not his decision to get the Hebrew was a tribute to his mother or to his grandfather or just to his general Jewish lineage in general we do not know, but in July of 2005 Mr. and Mrs. Beckham travelled to Singapore for their 6th wedding anniversary and at some point either before, during, or after their arrival there, they decided to mark their anniversary by getting the same Hebrew script lettering tattoos done on their bodies but in different locations. Their choice was a verse from the Song of Songs written by the mighty and wise Jewish King Shlomo HaMelech (King Solomon), “Ani LeDodi Ve’Dodi Li harea shoshaneem” which translates to: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine, who grazes among the roses.”

King Shlomo wrote the Song of Songs as an allegory of the relationship between the Creator and the nation of Israel, in terms of the love between a man and a woman. It is recited on?Pesach (Passover) the Holiday that celebrates the liberation of the Jewish People from their slavery in Egypt and their odyssey to claim their birthright, the land of Israel. According to Jewish Biblical Sage RASHI, the Megilah (Scroll) is the mashal (allegory) of a young and beautiful woman who becomes engaged to and then marries a king. But very soon after the marriage, she is unfaithful to him, causing him to send her away, into the status of ?living widowhood,? meaning she is ?as if? a widow, although her husband is still alive. But his love for her remains strong, and he watches over her at all times, from behind the scenes, to protect her. And when she resolves to return to him, and be faithful to him, he will take her back, with a love that is fully restored. The reason why he chose the verse is in his own words and bein that it was their aniversary explains why Victoria also had it done, “… I’m a quarter Jewish and I decided to have Hebrew on my arms. When Jewish people get married they have this wording around their wedding ring….” Source: David beckham in an interview to the Sunday Mirror and printed 14 May 2006

Now if you know any Beckham or tattoo pop culture history, you would know that Louis Molloy was the tattoo artist who’s done nine of the footballer now famous tats, and you might even know that not too long ago, Louis Molloy threatened to sue Beckham if Beckham showed the tattoos in an ad campaign. We do not know the details as to what happened with that episode but that might likely explain why David and Victoria did not go to Louis for their Hebrew tattoos and if Louis was the artist who made the Hindi letter mistake, then I am pretty sure Victoria said to David, “Blimey. No fuckin way he’s tattooing my body with a foreign language”. Now that said, Louis Malloy is an awesome, professional tattoo artist as his portfolio speaks for itself, and he was very cool and polite on the phone with me when we called him up. David contacted his new tattoo artist and made arrangements to fly him and his equipment to Singapore to tattoo him in his and Victoria’s hotel rooms to tattoo both of them. The new tattoo artist is adamant that he remain anonymous because that is the arrangement that he agreed to with David and Victoria in return for having them as return customers.

### END ###