Translating tattoos

[Shelley]

I have been visiting Chinese forums for about a year now and am amazed at how many people seem to have tattoos and not know what they mean. I would not have anything permanently tattooed unless i was 100% sure what it meant and that i would want it for the rest of my life. Can anyone explain how people end up with tottoos they don't know what they mean?

Shelley

[Gleaves]

No idea.

But this site (http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/) is great for cringe-worthy tattoos. I'm having a hard time believing someone incorrectly tattoed "bitter idiot" on themselves, but I'll suspend my disbelief for a chuckle.

[jbradfor]

Alcohol.

That, and actually believing that a tattoo artist knows any Chinese. But I would guess that alcohol, again, has something to do with the suspension of disbelief.

[SiMaKe]

@Shelley

"Can anyone explain how people end up with tottoos they don't know what they mean?"

My guess is that, in addition to incidents where alcohol induces a blurring of reality, frequently it just looks "cool" (or whatever descriptor is your favorite). As was mentioned by a previous poster, he picked his from a list. And I suspect he was neither the first, nor the last. Also, I could believe that some people are not even aware of what hanzi represent or that they think of them as pure pictographs. Then they select one similar to how one would interpret an image from a Rorschach test.

[Shelley]

Alcohol.. should've guessed :rolleyes: Choseing from a list I would have thought might be more reliable but i suppose it depends on where the list comes from. Thanks for the link, yes i did "cringe" some look made up but mostly just wrong characters (bi zi I think in chinese) Thanks for your replies. All very interesting.

Shelley

[Gleaves]

Here's some examples of the kind of lists you might find in a tattoo shop. It gets especially scary at the bottom, where they assign letters to Chinese characters.

[Shelley]

oh wow that is scarey, that might explain some of the more abstact offerings i have seen. Its a shame that the meaning isn't seen as important. But as it has been said they probably "look cool" and that is all that matters. thanks for the link.

Shelley

[jbradfor]

That is scary. I've seen the letters before, scary as they are. But who would ever want 婊 or 妓 or 尿 as a tattoo? At least they have the definition correct.

[skylee]

wrong characters (bi zi I think in chinese)

I suppose you mean baizi 白字.

[Shelley]

Yes i did mean that. i wasn't sure of the pinyin. Thanks Shelley