Hi there,
I work at a school, and one of the students has a tattoo that reads "ithe úr". When I asked her what it means, she laughed, told me it's Irish and to find out for myself! So that's what i'm doing! Your help is appreciated!
Thanks guys,
Nanu

"Fresh eating" is what it says, but why she'd want something like that I have no idea.

Redwolf

I suspect it was someone's attempt to sat "Eat fresh!", as a locavore slogan, but of course Red's right about what it actually says. The word ùr is used in Scottish Gaelic to mean "new" (rather than the word nua used in Irish), but it wouldn't make sense in Gaelic either.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

It's used in Ulster as well (úr, that is).

Redwolf

Oh, that's indeed a weird choice for a tattoo - I wonder if I misread it?!!
Anyway, thanks for your replies!
Nanu

Next time you see her, double check it, and if it's the same as what you read before, tell her what you found and ask her what she meant by it. Then come back and tell us, because now I'm mightily curious!

Sadly, there are a lot of really, really bad Irish tattoos out there...mainly because people think they can do the translations themselves with the help of a dictionary (pro tip: You can't. The languages are too different). Sometimes they get something out of a book or song that's incorrect (sadly, many writers don't' bother to get their Irish corrected), or from a friend who claims to have good Irish but doesn't. Personally, I can't imagine getting something like that permanently inked on my body without being absolutely certain it's correct, but people sometimes do really silly things.

Redwolf