A bit of English listening practice: here’s an NPR story about a tattoo artist who is keeping himself entertained by tattooing…himself. I’ve put together a list of some vocabulary items that you might not have come across before. If you would like other aspects of the language of the story explained, please say so in the Comments section!
ink: The basic meaning of this word as a noun is encre. When the announcer says (at 12 seconds into the story) that the tattoo artist has given himself one new piece of ink every day in quarantine, he means that the man is giving himself one tattoo every day. Nowadays you can also use this word as a verb, to ink, which means to give a tattoo, or to tattoo. Examples below.
to sport [something]: to wear proudly. Merriam-Webster defines it this way: “to display or wear usually ostentatiously.” At 15 seconds into the story, the reporter says Woodhead, who already sported hundreds of tattoos…
CNN: A popular cable news channel. It is roughly the BFM-TV of the United States–relatively short stories versus a lot of in-depth programming; the same stories played over and over; and, it should be said, some very good commentators, particularly Fareed Zakaria, a pretty unattractive man who I would nonetheless love to have a cup of coffee with due to his great insights into the world and the news of the day.
I started a tattoo apprenticeship and i’d love to ink you 🥺👉🏻👈🏻 pic.twitter.com/SLVlgahNpC
— ミスター・デス (@tynepalic) May 2, 2020
I started a tattoo apprenticeship and i’d love to ink you 🥺👉🏻👈🏻 pic.twitter.com/SLVlgahNpC
— ミスター・デス (@tynepalic) May 2, 2020
Zipf's Law 