Plz help translate tattoo in mandarin/cantonese/japonese

[lelegor]

my friend recently got a tattoo in chinese and i contested the real meaning of the tattoos. Supposodely it says from left to right at you will see in the picture, the word concentration is the first two letters and ambition the last. He told me is supposed to be read either left to right or from down up like this d

d

d

He is good friend of mine and i would like to let him know if the tattoos he actually got means excatly what he thinks they mean. Any help would be gladly appreciated. It good be in either in mandarin, cantonese, or japonese.

[skylee]

If there is nothing wrong with the photo, then the tattoo is wrong. It is the mirror image of 凝念志 (ning nian zhi), which probably is a transliteration of a name. It should be read top down (like when your friend is standing) only.

the word concentration is the first two letters and ambition the last

You could interpret the characters (they are called characters not letters) this way. It is not wrong, but Chinese usually don't interpret them like that. It's like when you see the word "Peter" you would say it's a name, instead of thinking that it means "stone / rock".

[imron]

Sorry to tell you this, but the image is back to front so you'd have to look at it in a mirror for it to look correct. Also, the way the characters have been placed, it should be read from top to bottom (ie. vertically), not from left to right.

The characters (with mandarin pronunciation) are:

凝 － níng

念 － niàn

志 － zhì

In isolation the words more or less mean what you mention, but I don't think you'd normally put them together like that.

Perhaps your friend can take some consolation in the fact that he's not the only one to get an incorrect Chinese tattoo.

[lelegor]

so basically if the characters are in isolation it would mean what he wanted but since they are put together they form a completly new word or in this case name. But from what you said it only means what he wants from top to down not horizontanly like in the picture?

[gougou]

it only means what he wants from top to down not horizontanly like in the picture?

Characters can only be read one way; if you turn them on the side, they won't have any meaning.

Same as in English, actually, or can you read

T

H

I

S

horizontally?

[imron]

This is how it should look

[skylee]

so basically if the characters are in isolation it would mean what he wanted but since they are put together they form a completly new word or in this case name.

Re the "name" bit. Sorry for mentioning it and misleading you. I thought it sounded like a name. That's all.

And the three characters have not really formed a new word.

[BrandeX]

I love seeing when people do silly things like this

www.hanzismatter.com is a great site