I have incorporated a Latin phrase into a tattoo of a ship on the inside of my right arm. It says Plus Ultra, which means “more beyond.” In the days before the new world was discovered, the official motto of Spain was Ne Plus Ultra, or “Nothing more beyond.” The Spaniards believed that the Strait of Gibraltar was the end of the earth and that they had already explored as far as you can go. Once Columbus sailed the ocean blue, the Ne disappeared, and to this day on the Spanish coin is the humble acknowledgment that there is in fact more beyond.4
