PSA: The Chinese Character Tattoo--Just DON'T do it!

[heifeng]

Soooooo, I couldn't NOT share this interesting lil' story with our forum members. Which, basically, goes with the title of the thread.

Lil' ole me went to day 1 of dance class in which all hair must be pulled up. New semester, day one, new students.

Right before the end of class something catches my eye...a tattoo. Well, no big deal. Sure 1/2 of the class is tattooed up and down, left and right (somehow I'm feeling old b/c since when did bird tattoos on the face and kisses up and down one's body become all the rage?!) Anyway...what I saw was more shocking than little birds and lip prints... I saw the following 2 characters on the back of a girl's neck:

好

色

Oh....man....now I have to stare at this tattoo for the next 16 weeks of my life. Now, there is NO WAY in the next 16 weeks I'm going to be able to hold back asking her about this tattoo. (It didn't work the last time someone had his name...sort of...tattooed on his back) Does she KNOW what it means...Does she get odd reactions from the many, many Chinese males that walk by on campus?! (She's not Chinese) Does she realize that her new official sound track (in my mind at least) is now this (awesome & *warning* explicit) 2Live Crew

? If that was her *intent*, then good for her I guess (If that's the case maybe I'll consider changing her theme song to Hoochi Mama or You Go Girl, I'm still undecided...hmmm)

Now, for all I know she's another type of 'dancer' that entertains certain clientele (hey Chinese Tourism is pretty big these days!) when she's not in class, ~OR~ someone pulled a fast one on her at the tattoo parlor. However, this part of the story is to be continued...UNLESS she drops the class...then I'll just always have to wonder, what possessed her to tattoo this!

In conclusion, to our forum visitors please heed this warning: the Chinese Character tattoo....just DON'T do it*

___

*sure, sure, you can do what you want with your own skin...but do so at your own risk if you don't know what you or the tattoo "artist" is writing...and even if you do know (or think you know) what you are writing, ask yourself..do you REALLY want to be advertising that?!

[andysun731]

Or figure out what the tattoo means by asking in the forum before do it.

[Guest realmayo]

In that case, what would a good Chinese tattoo be do you think? I mean, if someone held a gun to your head and said: I'm gonna tattoo you in Chinese, what shall I write? ..... what would you choose?

[andysun731]

Will the gun-guy allow you to choose the tattoo pattern? I doubt it...

[Tiana]

But... I guess that 好色 will indeed be a bad sign on a male body but who knows what effect it may have on a female body? I imagine some males may feel tantalised or even challenged by it

[imron]

Lil' ole me went to day 1 of dance class

Not enough Chinese exams to keep you busy these days?

[heifeng]

@imron, oh don't worry, I have 1 exam I'm taking in about 1 month, and another possibly before the end of the year...but no more after that for the time being. (Maybe I'll post a bit about them in general..but you know you have to sign away your life in blood so that you don't reveal the *secrets* or something like that).

@realmayo: Roddy started that thread in 2009, have a look. I didn't answer at that time either though: If you had to have a Chinese character tattoo ... I encourage you to first tell us what you'd get done on that thread

[heifeng]

Day 2: I didn't know what she looked like from the front after last class, but today my eyes swept the studio looking for her. Alas, she has not dropped the class so I was able to re-located her for a quick assessment. No other tattoos..just the one---unless something else is hiding under her dance leotard. In fact she seemed quite reserved and has some classical training (good girl gone bad perhaps?!)...She was aside me several times when standing in line waiting for our turn. Oh how I wanted to ask...but nope, I must wait until at least until week 2 or 3, and actually make a proper introduction since we are technically classmates this semester.

After seeing her the second time I have made up a wild story in my head that maybe her boyfriend's name is Jose and somehow these 2 characters were randomly & unfortunately selected for phonetic reasons...or maybe it's a play on sounds & meaning b/c Jose is in fact the one who is 好色. Anyway, I clearly have an over active imagination.....

I will report back when I somehow cleverly and tactfully work the question into a conversation.....

[abcdefg]

@Heifeng -- I have seen very few Chinese "good girls" sporting tattoos. (Have met a few who were semi-pro sex workers.)

Are there Chinese girls in your dance class as well? Any of them "inked up?" I wonder if the tattoo craze is beginning to sweep China as it has swept the West.

[heifeng]

@abcdefg: The one international Chinese student I met in class (previous semester) was pretty shy and would pretty much fall into the 'good girl' category*. My impression is that international students tend to take the dance classes only when they NEED to fill in some extra units to keep full time status (w/ 12 unit/semester) per their visa, so there are not that many Chinese students in dance class so far....probably not the most popular international student degree program!

~Also since this semester just started I am not sure who is from where quite yet, so there may be students from China, but I'll have to wait and see (and listen & sneak a peak at the attendance sheet) to be certain.

(*However, in terms of tattoos, the American born, or, Americanized Asian girls in general occasionally do have tattoos!)

[abcdefg]

Thanks!

[langxia]

I wonder if the tattoo craze is beginning to sweep China as it has swept the West.

In the big cities most definately, I saw more and more people with tatoos. For example a lot of girls with a small tatoo on the ankle. Then as I go to a lot of Punk concerts in Beijing and met most of the people that play in bands I can tell you that most of them are fully tatooed and a lot of their girlfriends are also getting inked a lot.

The other thing I saw was there are a lot of people getting a tatoo on the hand (usually a scorpion no idea why, and yes those were also girls that had them)

I would say that in the big cities like Beijing a tatoo on a girl definately doesn't say she is a sex worker.

Edit： heifeng please talk to her as soon as possible as you made me really curious

[abcdefg]

Kunming is still fairly provincial in that regard from what I've seen, even though the population keeps climbing. Also, I'm out of touch with the contemporary music scene and tend to hang out with a more conservative, traditional crowd here.

When I visited Yantai in Shandong, I saw lots of tattooed people, both men and women. But of course that is a seaport city, which is probably a factor. Spent a memorable evening with a young woman there whose entire back was covered with a colorful, ornate dragon. Very well done, but I doubt her mother approved.

[Lu]

In Taipei tattoos on fingers and hands were, surprisingly, not uncommon. There is (was?) a basically a less unhealthy and more coverd-up version of the binglang beauties: pretty young women selling lemon juice in the streets. Not sure whether that counts as a good or a bad girl, but they often had little tribal tattoos on their fingers. Here in Beijing tattoos are far from rare either.

[ErdoS]

So... what does

好

色

mean?

[fanglu]

Spent a memorable evening with a young woman there whose entire back was covered with a colorful, ornate dragon. Very well done, but I doubt her mother approved.

As opposed to her spending the evening with you, which I'm sure she was very pleased with.

[fanglu]

好色

[abcdefg]

#16 -- Her mother didn't know about me. I'm sure of that.