Designing My First Tattoo
- Thread starter Soran77
- Start date
just so you know and also a good place if you don't want people to see it, a T-shirt already would cover it. 
Neat! But check your capitalization of Qapla'. I'm no expert on piQad, but it looks like you're using the little 'q' instead of 'Q'.So I'm getting this as my first Tattoo, broke out the vector art software and dusted off my old skill set and this was the result of a hand drawn image I came across on an image search!
It's " QAPLA' " all capitals
Okay, that's a problem, because Klingon and -- by extension -- pIqaD only has four capital letters: D, H, I, Q, and S. Five capital letters. All others are represented by lower-case letters. They're not really letters, so much as sounds that, in pIqaD have been mapped to specific symbols. Thus, it's not spelled qapla' or QAPLA', but Qapla'.
From Wikipedia's entry on pIqaD:
Look at the symbols for the 'q' and 'Q' sounds. You'll see that lower-case q is more upright, and has a sloped top, whereas the upper-case symbol is swept to the right and has a flat, almost horizontal top. The other symbols in your tattoo look correct, but that first 'q' is a problem.
Look, we're discussing a made-up character set for a made-up language that is at-best occasionally applied by the rights-holders for Star Trek themselves. There's nothing to stop you from making your own character set and proclaiming it spells out whatever you want. But you've used symbols from pIqaD, they almost spell out what you say they do, so why not spare yourself the anguish of a lifetime of Star Trek nebbishes like myself pointing at your tattoo and saying, "Um ... excuse me ... but I think you've spelled "Qapla'" incorrectly!"
'Cause ...
We're out there ...
And we're eager to push up our glasses and step forward.
Last edited:
I imagine you are, and I am as much of a star trek fan as you, also wear glasses, seriously though, I appreciate it, and want it to look right, I'll post an updated image soon, thanks for the input!Okay, that's a problem, because Klingon and -- by extension -- pIqaD only has four capital letters: D, H, I, Q, and S. Five capital letters. All others are represented by lower-case letters. They're not really letters, so much as sounds that, in pIqaD have been mapped to specific symbols. Thus, it's not spelled qapla' or QAPLA', but Qapla'.
From Wikipedia's entry on pIqaD:
Look at the symbols for the 'q' and 'Q' sounds. You'll see that lower-case q is more upright, and has a sloped top, whereas the upper-case symbol is swept to the right and has a flat, almost horizontal top. The other symbols in your tattoo look correct, but that first 'q' is a problem.
Look, we're discussing a made-up character set for a made-up language that is at-best occasionally applied by the rights-holders for Star Trek themselves. There's nothing to stop you from making your own character set and proclaiming it spells out whatever you want. But you've used symbols from pIqaD, they almost spell out what you say they do, so why not spare yourself the anguish of a lifetime of Star Trek nebbishes like myself pointing at your tattoo and saying, "Um ... excuse me ... but I think you've spelled "Qapla'" incorrectly!"
'Cause ...
We're out there ...
And we're eager to push up our glasses and step forward.
