Spitzer Call Girl Ashley Dupre's Tattoo: Fair Value in the Media?

How Trivial Has Our Society Become?

The focus on the minutiae-like details of Ashley Dupre's life is taking up headlines. The New York Post reports that the newly infamous call girl that brought down Governor Eliot Spitzer, the "Mr. Clean of Wall Street," has a tattoo that reads "tutela valui." It is been suggested that this Latin phrase means "fair value." But in actuality it is one of those Latin phrases whose interpretation is more complex. "Tutela" is a nominative singular that means "I the protected one." "Valui" is a past tense verb for "valeo," and it means "was strong" or "was safe." The two together thus mean the protected one was safe or strong. Different readings could say "I was strong or safe [even though] I was the one being protected." However you read it, it seems that Ashley Dupre sends a message through her tattoo which suggests that she may seem weak and appears to need protection, a safe haven, but she had always been strong. Heck she left home at the age of 17 and had been on her own since. She appears to have been making it despite what obstacles she's had. According to her postings on her Myspace page, Ashley had been a survivor from the get go.

Ashley's Myspace page reveals that she had "been abused," "used drugs," and had been "homeless." So perhaps she is sending a message and a reminder to herself that she had been through horrible things that should have made her weak enough to succumb, yet she rises above it all. Now, she is "on top of the world," but certainly not the way she might have dreamed it.