A journalism student who came in for criticism after getting her name tattooed on her leg in shorthand has defended her decision to have it done.
Anneka Masih is studying the MA Journalism course at Staffordshire University and chose to have the tattoo on her ankle, pictured left, to show her commitment to journalism.
Our report on the tattoo last week brought forth a stream of comments from HTFP readers, with some criticising her for having it done and others claiming the shorthand outline for Anneka was inaccurate.
Now Anneka has had her say, blogging about the tattoo and the reaction to it in a guest post on journalism graduate Matthew Wiggins’s NCTJ and Beyond.
In it she writes: “The tattoo symbolises the stage of my life where I want to pursue my career as a journalist, and it’s something I can always look back on.
“I thought the outline of my name was really interesting and wouldn’t offend anyone, nor would it be pointless. Some people get tattoos of patterns and flowers, or a specific design because the design itself was quite pretty.
“But I wanted more than that. This tattoo represents a stage of my life where I worked hard to achieve a goal.
“I really enjoy learning shorthand and agreed to the story being published. The fact that people started commenting on it was really interesting to me.
“I personally didn’t expect lots of people to read it, and I definitely thought it would only be a light-hearted story. Suddenly, it became really controversial within a few hours of being posted.
“Something which was supposed to be symbolic to me had become this central point for people to start attacking me personally. Some people called me an ‘idiot’ and one person even called me a ‘chav’, even though they don’t actually know me.”
Anneka insisted the outline of the tattoo was correct and people she had shown it to could read it back as her name.
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Don’t worry Anneka, rise above it. Best just to ignore 99% of the people who comment on articles online. They are normally miserable, world-weary cowards who would never dream of saying the same to the person’s face.
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too right. shades of Andy Gray overkill ie media talking to media. Move on, Enjoy your life. Leave Les Miserables in their own mire.
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All you have served to do is highlight the whole thing again when you would have been better off keeping schtum and letting it slowly drift away!
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At least HTFP understands the significance of this story, rightly placing it above tales of jobs cuts and contempt of court concerns.
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Harumph.
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Just make sure nobody tattoos a shorthand ‘w’ at the top while you;re sleeping.
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It’s not a great teeline outline for ‘Anneka’ – for some reason the ‘n’ appears to have been elongated – presumably to add an ‘e’ to it, but the whole point about teeline is you remove the vowels.
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Ah, I see what you did there Lee. Very funny. Fancy going for a pint?
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Stuart – you don’t remove vowels in a name (which can be spelled several different ways).
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Still looks like it was done with a rusty nail.
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Well played Anneka for winning all this publicity. Jobs are at a premium. Who is the only candidate, editors will have heard of when they turn up for an interview?
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I didn’t get a harumph outta that guy….
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@Paul: Surely then, a job in PR not journalism is the way forward for this woman?!?!?
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This is getting to be a bit like that meerkat telly advert thing. Enough already.
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This is just a silly stunt that gets sillier the more people comment on it. If Anneka ever makes it as a proper journalist I’ll eat my hat and have the word tattooed on my backside.
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Journalism student gets shorthand tattoo. Quite a quirky tale so while all the controversy and why all the bickering? Ignore all the nonsense and the people who appear to know everything Anneka and good luck in your career.
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I like this story. It’s fun.
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I think the outline is a little inaccurate as the “n” is long but what’s the point in telling this girl she won’t get a job in journalism? You miserable gits!
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Nobody seems to have clocked that you would NEVER write a name in shorthand anyway. It always needs to be spelled out longhand to avoid errors in names that can be spelled many different ways.
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groan… i don’t know why i bothered even getting to the end of this thread but as i made it this far i’d like to say: good story, now move on. ah’thank you
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If you don’t mind, I would like to be the last person to comment on this thread. Thank you.
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Tough.
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Damn and blast you, Creosote
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