 | Get an inkling before you ink!By Grace Yip |
Ummm. Friends? Listen.
IF YOU ARE GETTING A TATTOO IN A LANGUAGE YOU ARE NOT LITERATE IN, PLEASE GET IT APPROVED BY SOMEONE LITERATE IN SAID LANGUAGE BEFORE YOU INK.
I have seen way too many fucked up tats of Chinese characters. It is very hard for me not to walk up to you and point out that your tat of the word “life” has an extra brush stroke or that your tattoo of the character “love” in Chinese is mirrored. Since I try to be non-judgmental to people’s faces, I will simply smile, turn away and roll my eyes. Seriously though, if you are getting a tat in an Asian language, please consult your literate-in-said-Asian-language-friend before permanently branding yourself with stupidity. Lezzies love languages, so I’m sure that within your circle or circle of circle of friends, you can figure this shit out.
If you want something in Chinese but don’t have any literate Chinese friends – simply walk into your local Chinese restaurant and ASK. My people will help you. We may laugh but we do not want you to fuck up our language.
Finally, in response to Grace Underpressure’s post on getting a pride tattoo, please refrain from getting the Chinese character of “love” tattooed in rainbow colors/on a rainbow flag/in a rainbow triangle/or whatever rainbowy thing you can think. It’s been done over and over and over again.
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March 15th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
There goes my whole-body tattoo of the Tao Te Ching. That would take way to long to get through a spell check while I am waiting for my pork fried rice.
March 15th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Sometime, over several beers, I will confess my secret shame and tell you The Story of the Chinese Print and the Take-out Delivery Guy. The moral of the story is never trust a smug, white gay man in a midwest frame shop.
March 15th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Underfire.. that massive tat would hurt like a mother. and Fox – lay off the peeps.
Speaking of tats you shouldn’t get… for the love of Rachel Maddow, THINK TWICE before getting the “phoenix rising out of the ash” tattoo because a) you went through a lot of shit and b) no really, you went through a lot of shit and want to celebrate by getting a ginormous back tat of a phoenix rising out of your ass.
Apparently a lot of people who “went through a lot of shit” had the same idea.
March 15th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
I was planning on making an appointment for a tattoo this week. Now, I’m too scared.
March 15th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Ya I am kinda hoping my ex has a tattoo that means chicken with garlic sauce!
March 15th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Dude! I think Grace Fox needs peep rehab. Is there a chinese character for peeps? I see a future tat in the making.
March 16th, 2010 at 6:55 am
A chinese character for a peep? Now that would make a hilarious tattoo.
March 16th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Grace Yip, You’ll like this blog I found (link below!)
As the header says, its dedicated to the “misuse of Chinese characters in western culture.” Basically people send photos of tattoos, t-shirts, etc. in to get them translated… the majority of them don’t turn out too well which=hilarity for the rest of us.
http://www.hanzismatter.com/
March 17th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
EA – that is horrifically awesome.
March 18th, 2010 at 12:25 am
And yet, serves them right? Yes. Serves them right.
March 24th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Of course it does go both ways. When I lived in Hong Kong I ran into plenty of girls wearing tshirts that said stuff like ‘Life Love! Shit’ and a sweet old lady in a top that said ‘BITCH’. And yes I checked and no she wasn’t aware what it meant.
I didn’t see any tattoos in English, though. And in fact my post is pretty hypocritical because my gf, who is Eurasian, ended up with a dodgy tattoo when the HK tattoo artist decided, for reasons of his own, to add an extra character…
Though actually, since she’s half-Chinese and he was Chinese, your story might not be so relevant to Westerners as to dappy people globally.
March 24th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
ESL = Engrish as a shitty language.