In honor of my 20th wedding anniversary I am getting a tattoo. I wish part of the design to be the phrase, “yours always and forever”, in Latin. I am having trouble getting getting a consistant translation from different translation tools. Since this is permanent I want to make sure I have it correct.
Any Latin experts out in Doper land who can help me with the correct phrasing?
Any ‘must have’ advice about tattoos in general? I am using an artist who has a sterling reputation after many years in business, and who has beautifully ‘inked’ some of my friends.
Yes, I know this is for the rest of my life. This is not an impuslive decision. It also has my husband insanely turned on. 
Well, first of all there’s the generally good advice that you shouldn’t get a tattoo in a language you yourself cannot read. However, at least you’re asking. Also, there is a problem in translation whereby what resonates strongly in one language doesn’t necessarily have the same punch carried across to another language. For whatever reason, the English ear likes ‘always’ and ‘forever’ in the same clause, but that doesn’t mean it has the same resonance when the equivalent words are translated in Latin.
Your best bet is usually to find a quote already in Latin that deals with the idea you have in mind. But with the magic of Google, all I could find is that lots of people have already tackled the translation of “always and forever” into Latin. Now, this would bother me – that the desire to have this particular sentiment rendered in Latin turns out to be such a cliche – but of course cliches are made out of stuff that was compelling to begin with. With no model that I can discover of this particular sentiment having been handled by an actual Latin speaker, you might as well go with one of the straightforward translations most people are coming up with:
Semper et in aeternum
Semper et in perpetuum
In aeternum and in perpetuum are stock expressions in Latin, and these phrases mean more-or-less exactly the same thing even if technically, aeternus is more like ‘eternal’ but perpetuus is more like ‘permanent’.
Now, I do have enough of a feel for the language that I don’t think you want to jam in there a word that means ‘yours’ – Latin often leaves things like that understood.