"Bugs?"

Professional English-Japanese translator Alan Siegrist writes:

Hi Tian,

OK, so I was looking over the kanji tattoos at Bmezine.com again (yes, it is getting addictive), and I found this picture:


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A70121/high/bmepb441572.jpg

The first thing I thought of when I saw all of these guys with the character 昆 on their shoulders was the combination 昆虫, but I couldn’t for the life of me think of why they would want to tattoo themselves with the word for bug or insect.

Then I thought it might be a Chinese thing, so I looked it up in a Chinese dictionary. I think that 昆仲 or 昆季 can mean “brothers.” Is that the first association a Chinese person would make upon seeing the character 昆? Or would you think of 昆虫 also? Even if the meaning of “brother” is right, why would they use only 昆 which means only “elder brother”?

If they really wanted to do a guy thing and tattoo themselves with the Chinese or Japanese for “brothers” wouldn’t 兄弟 be a better choice?

Anyway, I know you must be busy, but I still appreciate the work you put into Hanzismatter.com.

Best,


Alan


昆 may have once meant 'brother.' However, just like any other language, its meaning has changed with time. Similar to the word 'gay' no longer exclusively meaning 'happy' in modern day English.

La Presse

link & pdf

In Jan. 31 issue of La Presse, there was an article briefly mentioned Hanzi Smatter:

"Et il y a bien pire. Tian, jeune blogueur chinois aujourd’hui installé en Arizona, s’amuse justement à répertorier les tatouages les plus ridicules. Et il n’en manque pas. Sur son site (www.hanzismatter.com), qu’il alimente depuis deux ans, il a collectionné 400 perles. Parmi elles, mentionnons le tatouage d’une Américaine : « folle diarrhée ». Aïe !"

Since I do not understand French, reader Dimitri translated the paragraph for me:

"There is worst. Tian, a young Chinese blogger, now living in Arizona is having fun documenting the most ridiculous tattoos. And there is no lack of it. On his site, on which he has been working for two years, he collected 400 gems. Amongst them, the tattoo of a young female American: "Crazy diarrhea". Ouch !"

Sad & Happy

The character 樂 has multiple meanings depending on the context. Commonly it means "happy/joy". When combined with other characters, it would then mean "music".


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A70113/high/bmepb429211.jpg

I don't know this young man's original intention when he picked what appears to be 喪 (sad/mourning) and 樂.

I could only assume he wanted "sad & happy", however this appears to be "dirge", or "funeral music".

"Stop Woman Flow"

Two months ago, a young man named "Chuck" posted his tattoo which supposedly to be his daughter's initials in Chinese in BMEzine's tattoo gallery.

However, his choice of characters was not the best, and his tattoo proudly indicating to everyone that he menstruates regularly.


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A61204/high/bmepb404816.jpg

Today while browsing through the tattoo gallery, another young man is boasting his own (Dec. 4, 2006).

止女流 means "stop woman flow".

Is this some type of viral advertisement for feminine hygiene products? Perhaps I should forward it to my good friend, Steve Hall, at Adrants.com.

Seeking Tattooed Participants for Portrait Book

Two weeks ago I was contacted by Professor Kip Fulbeck of University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) about a tattoo portrait book project.

For those who are interested, here are the details:

SEEKING TATTOOED PARTICIPANTS

We are looking for individuals who may have had incorrectly translated (or applied) Chinese calligraphy tattoos for our upcoming book Permanence: Tattoo Portraits by Kip Fulbeck to be published by Chronicle Books in 2008.

If you are in the Southern CA area and are interested in being photographed for the book please email to



Anyone with interesting or unusual (by subject, style, or just plain bad) tattoo work is also welcome to contact us. Please note: We have PLENTY of tribal, Japanese sleeves, lower back butterflies, kanji, mid-scapula crosses, and mother's names already.

CNBC - Game On

On Nov. 15, 2006, CNBC aired a special titled "Game On" talking about the history of video games and its $25 billion financial impact.

During the show, an American businessman was quoted "I was told the only Japanese I needed to know was 百万台, which meant 1,000,000 units." At the same time, CNBC showed 百万台 on the television screen with last two characters upside down.


video: 917 KB Windows Media (thanks to Yang Zongbao)

Miami Ink - Weathering the Storm

Reader Wendy has tipped me about an episode of Miami Ink broadcasted earlier this year titled “Weathering the Storm”.


video: 16 MB Windows Media, mirror

In the show, a young lady wanted a “Japanese sign of Happiness or Inner Peace”, but what she and her friend downloaded from the internet was incorrect.

Chris Nunez then chimes in: “I think the single biggest crime is that there are so many tattoos on people either totally fake or doesn’t mean what they are looking for.” He then went on about how great it is to have Yojiro "Yoji" Harada in the shop to keep a watchful eye on fraudulent Kanji clients bring in.

Oh really?

Here is a screen shot of Kanji book in Miami Ink, and how come Yoji never spotted this?



時 by itself alone is not “stylish”, it means “time, season; era, age, period”.