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Translating the faux-Latin tattoo on Elliot Spitzer's favorite callgirl
Prof. Ann Althouse

Everyone's talking about Ashley Dupre's tattoo that reads, in faux Latin: "tutela valui." Dupre was Eliot Spitzer's favorite prostitute, so people want to understand the words. But like those ridiculous Chinese characters fools have permanently inked on their carcasses, Dupre's tattoo botches the language. The Daily News delves into scholarly interpretation of the whore's bikini line:

Tutela, which is related to tutor, has to do with a protector or guardian. Valui appears to be a past form of the word strong.

"So I guess you would say it means, 'I have a strong patron' or 'I have a strong keeper,'" said Doug Machle, assistant to the chairman in the classics department at the University of Washington.

"Or, actually, it's more like, 'My guardian was strong.'"...

Mark Buchan, a classics professor at Columbia, took a different tack, musing that it could mean "safe haven."

The Columbia professor gives Ashley credit — even as she tattoos herself with bad Latin — for seeing herself (or her body part) as the strong one and having a sense of humor about sex.

Prof. Althouse's commenters propose some alternate interpretations:

'My guardian was strong.'"... OR
My pimp is tough.

"Medical professors disagreed with their colleagues in the classics department, explaining the it wasn't faux Latin, but faux Roman numerals. "It's an ICD-9 code" said one professor. He declined to specify which one, but stated, "Basically, it's an STD warning label".

My Latin is fuzzy so I had to venture a guess. "Tutela" perhaps derived from tukus or dupa referring to her ass aka moneymaker. And "Valui" refering to money or value. So "Tutela Valui" could mean "Ass For Sale".

It's the Latin phrase for laser surgery at mid-life.

Posted by: Mike 2008-06-10
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=241400