Can you read this?

[nathan b]

I know what this is supossed to mean but can you tell me please. thank you

[Weronika]

is it chinese??

[roddy]

Is it the right way up?

[榴莲心伤可愈]

IT LOOKS LIKE “强”IN CHINESE。

[gougou]

More like 弹 in fact, but still quite far from it...

[imron]

Is it going to be a tattoo? (I hope not, if you think it's supposed to be a Chinese character)

[Strawberries513]

doesnt look like any Chinese character i ever saw.....

i sure hope you didnt get that as a tattoo....

[nathan b]

I'm not sure what it is, chinese or what. What other language has characters? Its a tatto I already have. It was on a laminated 14 x 11 card with all different characters. I don't know why someone would makeup characters for the sake of selling them but do them all wrong.

[roddy]

Hopefully you've just mangled it while copying it. Any chance of a photo?

[nathan b]

I drew it myself. I figured if I gave you the simple shape of it someone would know. If its a little off it seems if you know what it was you could read it.

It is suposed to mean "TO PLAY MUSIC"

[roddy]

Gougou was right. Can mean pluck / play a musical instrument, among other things. If your tattoo actually looks like that, you probably have cause for a lawsuit.

[Guest realmayo]

or you can just figure it’s a rather stylised calligraphic version!

[nathan b]

Thank you all who replied. Yes it is an artistic rendering. On my arm the girl did a really bad job but it still means alot to me. This picture is what I did with the shape of the character. I was hoping this was the symbol that means "music". If you look close you can see I have spelled the word "hallucinate" going down.

[nathan b]

Sorry that is hard to see.

[Yuchi]

The character you have isn't used in the context of playing music, it's for literally playing a piano/other instruments.

[nathan b]

To play records, like a DJ

[andrewfz]

I think its trying to be 演 as in 演奏

[Lu]

This purple picture doesn't look anything like a Chinese character, but contrary to most mangled characters you could have this as a tattoo without anyone laughing at you. It looks nice, artistic.

[Jockster]

...you probably have cause for a lawsuit.

Come on. The tattoo artist is responsible for transferring the image from paper to skin, the person getting the tattoo is responsible for the content. I know, I know, a lot of tattoo artists commit serious errors when it comes to Chinese characters, but it seems that in most cases, the person getting the tattoo does not really care. The tattoo could read "fried dumplings" and it would still be considered cool by his/her peers (who also lack the knowledge or simply aren't interested in the real meaning).

Different strokes for different folks, huh?

[anonymoose]

It is suposed to mean "TO PLAY MUSIC"

I was hoping this was the symbol that means "music".

I think I understand what's going on here. Someone has told nathan b. that the symbol 弹 means "to play music", so he's taken the 单 part off, thinking it means "music" (whilst, presumably, he thinks 弓 means "to play").