silversolitaire

Yes, I have always said that and I will say it again: if you want Chinese characters in your tattoo don't just open an instruction manual and take any old character that appeals to you. Chances are that you'll end up having something really stupid written on your body then. I'm not making this up. I've read this "useful hint" in one of those teeny rags once and I couldn't stop laughing!

Anyway, this lovely article addresses exactly this problem. Reminds me of that anecdote my grampa used to tell me when a missionary came back from China in the 1930s or so, and he passed a famous delicatessen shop in his hometown and saw the shop window where they had advertised and displayed the latest shipment of tea from China and had draped some of the bags the tea had come in around it for decoration. The missionary burst out in laughter and entered the store where he informed the appaled manager that the writing on the bags actually said "This tea has been cooked three times already for the Christian dogs". XD

So yes, people, take heed when dealing with characters you can't read. And I'm also very pleased this article doesn't only bash us Westeners who use kanji so unwittingly simply for decorational purposes, but also mentions that Japanese love using oddball English phrases all over the place just as much. Guess that's only fair! XD

Lost in Translation
Here’s what those cool-looking Japanese tattoos really say
By Junko Hamaguchi

It looks like a cool Japanese phrase, doesn’t it? Actually, it says, “I’m a pervert,” and it’s printed on T-shirts made here in America and worn by people who are unaware of what it means.

Americans love Japanese characters. In the five years I’ve been in this country, I have seen Japanese writing on jackets, T-shirts, hats, billboards and backpacks. Madonna even used Japanese characters on the cover of her latest album, “Greatest Hits Volume 2.”

More often than not, the words and phrases are nonsensical. For example, the characters on Madonna’s album cover, “” (mojijiramimiji) aren’t even words. If you tried to pronounce them, they would sound like earthworm (mimizu) and lice (shirami).

Worst of all, many of the tattoos with Japanese and Chinese characters are equally nonsensical and harder to take off or put away (see photos of Columbia College students’ tattoos, at right).

If you’re considering getting a tattoo with Japanese or Chinese characters, do some research first. Ask your Asian friends to help you select and verify the characters, or visit the Web site http://japanese.about.com. Also make sure that the tattoo artist is knowledgeable about Japanese or Chinese characters.

In Japan, where tattoos are becoming popular among young people, we prefer pictures, not letters or characters. On the other hand, we Japanese love to misuse English words. Japanese bands have names like Pornographity, Bump of Chicken, Mr. Children, Funk the Peanuts, Puffy and Spitz. Clearly, the translation trouble lies on both sides of the ocean.

What do they really say?
	At the tattoo parlor, Marcus Gonzales found a list of Chinese characters and picked "strength" and "courage." His Tai-chi teacher finally confessed that they really say "dog" and "puppy."

	Mary Haberski’s cousin’s wife is Japanese, and she told Mary her tattoo means "chaos," but it really means "to gather many things."

	Tim Bass used a Japanese dictionary to choose these characters to represent his first name. That’s a bad idea if you don’t know Japanese. Bass was too scared to ask what his tattoo really meant until I interviewed him. It looks like it says "unreliable delivery service."

	Angelique Starr asked for a tattoo that says "circle seven." But if you read it from bottom to top, it says "seven yen," which is about five cents.

	Together, these tattoos say "love hurts," which is what Matt Borek wanted. "Everyone is looking for love, but everyone gets pain," he says. That’s poetic, but the second word also can be read as "ouch." When I first saw his tattoos, I thought they expressed how much he loves his tattoos but that getting them hurt like hell.