My Chinese Tattoo . . . what the heck does it mean?

[tysdaddy]

I got this tattoo back in 2006. At the time, I was told that these Chinese characters represented my wife's initials - GJT. Of course, I figured that wasn't true, but I did it anyway because it ended up looking so neat on paper. I know what it means to me . . . but after sharing this picture in a recent blog post, inquiring minds want to know . . . What does it REALLY mean?!"

So I present you this tattoo.

Let me have it people.

(Just so you know, I did try to translate this myself at various websites, even one which let me try and draw the characters and find matches. I must be a crappy drawer, for I had no luck. I really appreciate your help with this. And please, I can take it. I want to know what it really stands for, regardless of how silly or weird. And if it doesn't mean anything . . . that'd be nice to know as well. Thank you so much, in advance . . . )

[tysdaddy]

If the picture isn't clear enough, please let me know.

And the site I mentioned about? nciku.com

Thanks again, everyone . . .

[imron]

Sorry, you're a victim of the gibberish Chinese font.

Interestingly enough, the first two characters (i.e. those corresponding to GJ) are 武術 (wushu) which is a word, and means martial art. Unfortunately though they are badly drawn. The third 'character' 氵 is actually not a character in its own right, rather it is what is called a radical (a common part of many characters) . The radical is known as "three drops of water" and if a character contains this radical, it usually is related to water in some way.

Edited September 14, 2009 at 11:30 PM by imron
Changed 武术 to traditional characters.

[tysdaddy]

So, I'm a watery martial artist? Or a martial artist stuck in the rain? Or drowning?

I remember the night well, and thinking that the characters looked a bit too photocopied. The place does good work, but they have poor templates, I guess.

Oh well. It was cheap. Is well-hidden. And will now give me points with the wife for when I want to get a REAL tattoo.

Sweet!

Thanks again!

[imron]

So, I'm a watery martial artist? Or a martial artist stuck in the rain?

Not quite. Imagine someone had a tattoo in English that said:

martial art, hydro-

e.g. it looked they they were going to write a word related to water like perhaps hydroelectic or hydroponic or hydrate, but then stopped before they finished. And then imagine that maybe all the t's were written backwards, or the rt of 'martial' was combined into one letter that looked more like a backwards h rather than two separate letters rt, and that the 'l' in martial looked more like a backslash than an l.

That's kind of what you've got tattooed.

[tysdaddy]

So, essentially . . . gibberish.

By the way, thanks for the link to the blog. I've had a blast looking through the site at all the poor folks who got sincerely nailed by this. I figured it was crap going in, but at the time I just didn't care. Every time someone asks me what it means, I make up something new.

As I said, I know what it means to me, so that's what matters.

Thanks again! And thanks for this site. I came here just for this, and have enjoyed looking through the other threads. Keep up the great work!

B

[trien27]

Might be "GJS"? Or what others have said, but let me make a comment: The first two characters 武術 mean "Martial arts", the last "character" might or might not be the "Three dots water" radical. I've just checked and it could also be "shi" written in Japanese katakana.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B7

[imron]

@trien27, did you read the link I posted above regarding the gibberish Asian font? It's a standard template used by many tattoo shops that (randomly) maps Chinese characters to English letters. It is the source of a large number of gibberish tattoos, and the characters there correspond exactly with the initials provided by tysdaddy.

[tysdaddy]

Hey guys,

While I'm here, I want to share a cool story . . .

I showed my eleven-year-old daughter this thread, and the nciku site, and she took to it immediately. She ran and got a journal she's using that has a character on the front and attempted to translate it. Here is the picture, and her translation is "Strong Girl" or something to that effect.

Is she close?

[imron]

It was a nice try, but unfortunately incorrect. This is a single character by itself - 安. It means safe, secure. See here.

[tysdaddy]

Awesome. I guess that fits on the cover of a journal, no?

She was thinking that the top part was a radical, or something like that.

She definitely had a blast playing around at the site. And now, we both have a greater appreciate for the subtleties of the language. (My daughter put the jumping, clapping dude in there. She's thrilled to know what it means.)

Thanks again. You have been most helpful. If I ever decide to get something in Chinese characters that actually means something, this will be my go-to site . . .

B

[skylee]

Many Chinese characters also appear in Japanese (in Japanese they are called Kanji). Some of them are written exactly the same way in the two languages, but some of them are written differently. Sometimes they have the same meanings, sometimes they don't.

The character on your daughter's journal can mean "cheap/inexpensive" (of prices) in Japanese.

[tysdaddy]

Uh, oh. I'll be sure not to tell her that . . . !

[HashiriKata]

"Strong Girl"

Sure, there is the girl bit in 安, the bottom bit

[tysdaddy]

So she wasn't too far off, then? That'll make her day!

And how about another, completely different, question, while I have you all here. If you feel I should start another thread for this, just let me know . . .

My blog is titled "The Cheek of God." It is from the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel. How would one go about writing that out in Chinese characters? And, as far as the characters go, I'd need a name for each character, and perhaps a link to some fonts that might look good.

Much appreciated . . .

[renzhe]

I assume that this is a play on words, and that "cheek" is not meant in a literal sense?

Such things are extremely difficult to translate.

[tysdaddy]

Here is the quote from the book . . .

"This beach, so soft, firm and vast, was like the cheek of God, and somewhere two eyes were glittering with pleasure and a mouth was smiling at having me there.”

It's about being in the most accepting and accommodating place possible, someplace where one fits in and is welcome. Definitely a metaphor . . . a play on words.

[elewis]

Hey guys i also have an issue with my tattoo regarding the meaning. I looked on a fairly decent website that displayed numerous amounts of meanings, name and proverbs. I then decided to choose an interesting proverb I liked. being "Rise through one's self efforts start form scratch" I just want complete clarification from someone who speaks the language and quite familiar with proverb n symbol translation! 

thanks

[Kamille]

This little girl has a gift! I'm pretty sure she read 力女. It's wrong of course but it's a good start, especially for an 11 years old. And even more since she noticed that the upper part might be a radical. There's logic behind her deduction. She would be 16 now. I'm curious as to whether she stuck to learning Chinese or not.

 

Now, elewis, usually people create their own topic to ask questions, they don't use other people's topics for that. Just so that you know, someone might want to split this part into a new topic (or not). Anyways, here is my answer to your questions:

 

The characters are 白手起家

 

It's as you said, a proverb (what they call a chengyu in Chinese). 白 means white, or empty, and 手 hand. The combination of the two obviously means "empty hand". Now 起 means a lot of stuff but here it's a vrb that means "to create/ to initiate", and 家 means business. 

So here we are: "rise through one's self efforts / start form scratch".

[Demonic_Duck]

Next question: treating “氵” as the water radical rather than a kana, what could the OP get tattooed to the right of “武術氵” to make it into some sort of meaningful phrase?

 

Edit:

 

舌動

氵+舌 = 活

 

武術活動 - martial arts activity

 

Edit 2: @OP: I should clarify that I'm not actually recommending you get this tattooed (would still be a rather odd phrase for a tattoo), more out of curiosity. Maybe someone else can come up with something better, though.