BECKHAM'S A LATIN LOVER
Luke Peterson
THURSDAY, 11 MAY, 2000
BECKHAM'S A LATIN LOVER
EXCLUSIVE
By GUY PATRICK
[ Picture - http://www.the-sun.co.uk/storypics/7225072?version=1 - To hell
on back ... how motto may look once added ]
[ Picture - http://www.the-sun.co.uk/storypics/7225320?version=1 - Tattoo
anew ... Beckham ]
DAVID BECKHAM is set to go through the pain barrier again and get another
tattoo on his back - in LATIN.
The Man United and England ace wants an inscription to go beneath the
guardian angel tattoo we revealed in yesterday's Sun.
It will read: "Et Animus Liber" - meaning Free Spirit - in old English
lettering.
Last night Louis Molloy, the man who gave Becks the angel tattoo, said: "We
discussed this at length and David fancies the Latin in an arc shape under
the angel.
"I'm expecting to see him some time over the summer and it should look
great.
"It's all his idea. He came in with the concept - and I put it down on
paper."
Louis, who works in Middleton, Gtr Manchester, praised Becks' nerve when he
had the guardian angel tattoo done.
He said: "On a pain scale of one to ten, his tattoo was a 9.9. It did hurt
because it ran right down his spine.
"There's no one on earth who can say a tattoo doesn't hurt and I take my hat
off to David.
"There was no wincing or anything - and it took a good two hours. Victoria
and Brooklyn were at his side as he had it done.
"We stopped a couple of times to have a soft drink but he never complained
about the pain once.
"At one stage Victoria was contemplating having a much smaller version of
his tattoo.
"She toyed with the idea but that's as far as it got."
A string of Beckham's team-mates have also visited Louis.
Two weeks ago Jaap Stam had a Chinese birth sign tattooed on his bicep,
while team captain Roy Keane had a design on his arm earlier in the season.
Striker Andy Cole has had Louis etch a theatre mask on his chest and former
Old Trafford stars Lee Sharpe and Paul Ince had tattoos done by Louis when
they were with the Red Devils.
Midfielder Nicky Butt is planning to visit Louis as well - but he wants to
remove an old tattoo. Louis said: "I seem to have a thing with the Man U
lads but I've also done other footballers.
"I've given Ian Wright two tattoos and Dean Holdsworth has come here for one
too."
Multi-millionaire Becks, 25, shows off his latest tattoo in new magazine
Esquire Sports Quarterly.
He told the magazine: "The guardian angel can also mean 'free spirit,' which
was an idea I liked.
"Brooklyn is beneath it so it's like he's watching over him. If I have any
other kids I'll have their names done underneath it too."
Yesterday the art world was stumped over where Becks got his inspiration for
the tattoo.
It had been suggested that he got the idea from a classical painting of
Christ's crucifixion.
However when asked if Becks was inspired by a Botticelli or a Leonardo da
Vinci, Britain's leading art museums could not help.
The tattoo drew blank looks from experts at the National Gallery, the Royal
Academy of Arts and Sotheby's.
Only the Tate Gallery came up with a suggestion - that Becks could be a fan
of surrealist master Salvador Dali's 1951 painting, Christ Of St John Of The
Cross, although it is markedly different from the design on the tattoo.
As for the motto, a Latin expert said "Et Animus Liber' literally translates
as "And the mind is free."
He added: "It's about the nearest translation you'd get to Free Spirit."
Ad caput meum, fili (on me head, son)
HERE are ten more Latin phrases that Becks could have tattooed on his back:
1. Dicam tibi quid velim, quid velim velim
- I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
2. Ad caput meum, fili
- On me head, son
3. Diaboli Russati, vivate in aeternum
- Red Devils forever
4. Alexandri Fergifilii exercitus russatus et fuscus
- Alex Ferguson's red and black army
5. Aliquid Nitidae amo
- I love a bit of Posh
6. Io, io Mancunii Sodales
- Glory, glory Man United
7. Ut psittacus sic aeger
- Sick as a parrot
8. Arbiter est malacus
- The referee's a w*****
9. Ludus duobus partibus
- It's a game of two halves
10. Age mi fili
- Come on my son