Comments on: vegetable, love, same difference

By: Cheng

Cheng — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 04:49:00 +0000

My Indian friend sees the term ‘wanker’ as integral to his identity, so had the appropriate Chinese characters tattooed on his shoulderblade. Problem is, he got them from one of those microscopic pocket dictionaries, so when he photocopied and enlarged them, they became one mass on the page. He was none the wiser, neither was the artist who copied the characters verbatim. IT looks like someone carelessly splooged it across its skin. Which adds to the meaning, I suppose

By: Tian

Tian — Sat, 16 Oct 2004 21:23:36 +0000

Fantastic story.

I have started a blog in beginning of 2004 October to keep track of the misuse of Chinese/Japanese characters in Western culture. Feel free to take a peak:

Hanzi Smatter

By: Linda

Linda — Sat, 07 Aug 2004 16:56:10 +0000

Hi,

I hope you can answer a question for me.
If I would like to tattoo the word “escape” in hebrew, what would that look like?

Grateful for an answer
// Nonni

By: random_user

random_user — Fri, 05 Sep 2003 08:48:41 +0000

ok, just a comment that its not just stupid white people getting meaningless tatoos on them, my ex-room mate (korean american) got “water” tattooed on her right wrist even though she was kinda clueless to what chinese chracters meant or how they were read… so its not just “stupid white people” its anyone who dosent clue into cultures yo

By: Anathema

Anathema — Sun, 24 Aug 2003 19:00:34 +0000

I wonder if a tattoo artist would think it funny if a customer came back with a lawsuit and/or a serious beating followed by tattooing a derogatory word on the artist’s face? Perhaps someone could go a little more low-tech and simply break the artist’s hand or cut off their fingers for their insolence.

I, for one, think all of those options would be very funny. Very funny, indeed.

By: theresa

theresa — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 15:45:15 +0000

Hehe.. my brother has a tattoo of the kanji symbol for “strength”.. or so he thinks. He doesn’t know chinese or japanese, nor is he even Asian. I’m so tempted to look up what it really means for him.

And he had the nerve to tell me to make sure I got a tattoo that meant something to me… HA!

By: Joel

Joel — Fri, 22 Aug 2003 21:11:08 +0000

Hahahahaahaha..
You made me spray coffee all over my monitor..

Me:
uhm.. it says *splurt* “HAHAHA” .. … ”

Still got coffee in the corners.. need more napkins.. brb.

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 22 Aug 2003 18:32:00 +0000

I thought I had researched well enough when I got the symbols for “harmony” “love” and “tranquility” tattooed a couple of years ago. My Japanese aunt helped me out a little. Turns out, it says “harmony” “love” and “cheap.” She thinks it’s hilarious. Lucky me.

By: "shameless"-the only word on my body :)

"shameless"-the only word on my body :) — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 18:30:28 +0000

I know a not-so-stupid but still dumb white girl who had the word “shalom” tatooed onto her body in Arabic. Only the word “shalom” doesn’t exist in Arabic, so it was a representation of direct translation from the English spelling of the word “Shalom.” Essentially, it meant nothing. And damn was it funny when we told her

BTW- i am a white girl who thinks that it’s a bit appropriationist to tattoo words, symbols and other culturally meaningful things onto ones body without making an effort to unerstand the culture, let alone the word or symbol, you’re “borrowing” from. It kind of wreaks of privilege. AND you look like a poser.

By: Ryan Waddell

Ryan Waddell — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 12:16:56 +0000

Of course she would, because she’s Madonna and she thinks it’s paying a lot of respect to feature something in one of her music videos.

PS – I want to get a tattoo of the word “fat” in some other language on me… it’s funny because I’m super skinny… and if I ever GET fat, then it’ll be fitting as well.