my sister's tatoo...

[ma3zi1]

I just got a good look at it, and it says:

邪

鼓

舞

In Chinese, this is somewhat contradictory, and doesn't really make much sense. She says it's Japanese but refuses to talk about it.

Can anyone confirm what this might mean in Japanese?

[kayro]

Doesn't really mean anything in Japanese.

Phonetically, it sounds out as "Yakobu" which would be the Japanese way of writing / romanizing the western name "Yakob"

That said

邪 = wicked (same as Chinese)

鼓舞 = inspiration / stimulus

Referenced below:

http://eow.alc.co.jp/%E9%BC%93%E8%88%9E/UTF-8/

[Glenn]

Just reading phonetically it's possible they were going for "Jacob". Other than that it doesn't make any sense to me. The second part (鼓舞) means to encourage someone/fire someone up, and comes from striking a drum and having someone dance, but with the "evil" on there it's either some sort of neologism that's a play on 鼓舞 or it's supposed to be Jacob, although it's strange that those characters would have been chosen. All that's to say that I really don't know. Does that help at all?

[ma3zi1]

... she has an ex with that name :o

[Glenn]

Oh, then maybe it's double entendre. That's his name, and he inspires her in an evil way, like through anger or something. Perhaps it couldn't be more fitting! haha