Bitter found a website I’ve seen before people send in photos of dubious Asian tattoos and the author translates them. Not only do many of the tattoos look totally stupid, and the fact that somebody might get a tattoo in a language they don’t speak or understand without doing a little research is kinda foolish too. And of course “Asian Tattoos” are just another fad-tattoo idea like the whole lower-back “Tramp Stamp” or “Malibu License Plate” thing, or the “Tribal” tattoos (which don’t appear to have any tribal origins, nor do they actually represent the origins of the owner) or a band tattoo (Yeah the Rolling Stones ruled in the 60s and 70s…but they haven’t produces anything good SINCE then!!!) all have the appeal of stitching a polyester leisure suit, or day-glo parachute pants into your skin.
I mean yeah Weer’d Beard had a flat-top all gelled to perfection in the early 90s because flat-tops were the SHIT back then. Now anybody with a flat-top looks like a total dork or a throw-back, so I cut my hair! (FYI for acres of Regret if you look at the cover archives for the Portland Press Herald Newspaper, there was a large above-the-fold, photo of (Then Governor) Bill Clinton in 1992 giving a campaign speech at the Portland International Jetport. The shot is behind slick-Willie and shows the crowd, if you look closely you’ll see a young Weer’d sans beard sporting a AWESOME flattop!)
Still an amusing Asian Tattoo story. I took a semester of Japanese in college and was a known Anime buff, so one morning a friend stopped by my dorm room to show her new tattoo off. Her name started with “A” and allegedly her tattoo was a “Japanese A”. Being as blunt then as I am today, I promptly took my Japanese textbooks down from my shelf and opened them first to Hiragana then to Katakana (I didn’t have a Kanji book at the time, but according to her description, I doubt Kanji would be very appropriate either) and noted that none of the “A’s” (tho nothing Japanese directly translates to “The Letter A”) looked anything like the ink under her skin. Furthermore, if you ask me, her tattoo didn’t even look remotely Japanese, I could be wrong but no matter what she certainly had no idea what she was marked with.
Think before you Ink!
Don’t go hatin on the flattop. It’s closely related to my beloved crew cut, which is the most awesome haircut ever.
The Crew cut is TIMELESS! I’m pretty close to that with just an 8mm buzz with no brushing. Still the high-riding obnoxious an gelled-rock-hard monstrosity on my head was related to the crew, its related in the same way a Tokarev TT-33 is related to a Colt M1911. They’re family but that gene pool definitely has a shallow end!
Heh, my brother and his friends are major anime buffs. Their standard answer for “what does this really say” is “Stupid Gaijin, I take your money.”
My wife doesn’t have an tattoos, but she does have these asian harmony/peace graphics up all over. I’m pretty sure they don’t say anything of the sort, but she thinks they look nice and I really don’t care.
Hey at least if you find out they say “Combo Number 5, Beef with Broccoli and Spring Roll” you can pitch them in the dumpster! Hard to do when your bicep proclaims to all our East-Asian Brothers and Sisters that you’re a fucking moron! 🙂
I don’t even like listening to songs in languages that I don’t understand unless I can get a reliable translation. What the hell would prompt me to have unintelligible-to-me characters permanently inked on my body?
I tottally had some Rammstein songs spoiled for me because I read a translation…:(
I had to translate some Rammstein songs in a German class in High School, and I have to agree with you.
I like Du Hast, better after hearing the English translation.
Guilty as charged! I do in fact have a three-character Chinese tattoo on my left shoulder — it’s my Chinese name, [last name] Lee Nyook. Means “beautiful jade” or “beautiful gem” and it’s my grandmother’s handwriting as she’s the one who named us all. Since I ended up losing [last name] when I got married it’s nice that it’s still an indelible [ha!] part of me.
And yes, my family teased me for weeks/months that my tattoo was actually “turn left at the Dairy Mart” or “donkeys are good to eat!” Happily, I’ve had it verified by numerous literate folks from China. Whew!
If you’re curious, you can see it here. And I’m on a horse! http://lookingforlissa.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/caribbean-diary-aruba/img_1676/
I’ve seen it before (I think at the Hilltop AD dinner IIRC) But given your heritage (and the fact that you’re wicked smart!) I would have little doubt about Chinese writing on your skin.
I’m a little curious as to why your [last name] is at the bottom? Chinese script always has the last name first. what tipped me off was the middle character is yu4 (mandarin pinyin) which is the symbol for jade. I can’t quite make out the top character, li, but it doesn’t look like the typical li that means beautiful. Either it is a more ancient form (doubtful since the other characters are modern) or it is a literary li that isn’t going to show up in any chinese-english dictionary. In any case, the meaning actually makes sense in chinese, beautiful (whether it be the typical li or one of the literary versions) and jade are often used for female names.
I love it when some “manly” guy picks a chinese name and it turns out to be something along the lines of the english equivalent of Angelica or Tiffany. Worse of course is when it means something like “Smelly Garbage.” Chinese is full of idioms and puns throughout the language, so if you want a chinese name, get it from a Chinese person.
Lol, Reputo — caught! Japo wrote it in the American style — first name, then last name. I didn’t mention it ’cause I try not to post my real names anywhere on the Intrawebz; I was banking on ambiguity. So, I don’t know if you can tell the character for my last name, but thanks for not posting it if you did! The “Li” might be better translated as “pretty” or “best”, if that helps.
Lissa I don’t post my last name either. I figured with [last name] you didn’t want yours posted.
Actual Maori tribal tattoos with the full face coverage and all that are tribal and authentic and I find them interesting to look at, but I wouldn’t put a tattoo gun to MY skin. I have plenty of scars to remind me where I’ve been, both physical and mental, no need to tattoo more on my skin 🙂
Only “tattoos” I have are things like the streak on one of my fingers where I almost amputated it by dropping a steel plate on it and when it healed I hadn’t cleaned out all the rust and grease and it left a permanent discoloration because there are metal particles still in the skin and meat. More than twenty years later it’s still there, and I can look at it and remember what I did wrong to almost lose that finger and I didn’t have to pay anybody to ink it in my skin…
Thankfully, there were typically enough people in the Navy who spoke enough languages that it was not often a sailor was permanently encolored with something … wrong. At least not often…
Me, about the only thing I would get permanently engraved on my own flesh would be a language I, personally, can speak, or the kanji for Serenity (which I have verified in sufficient places to be sure they are the correct characters). Actually seriously considered the latter, but it is not likely to be :).
That said, if you just like the design for whatever the design might be, more power to you :).