Americans love to make fun of foreigners. There is an industry devoted to mocking the enthusiastic but flawed attempts of Asian people to create signs and documents in English. (see Engrish.com) I make no apologies for this; it’s hilarious.
But you know what I have never seen? A Chinese person with a tattoo of a ridiculous or nonsensical English phrase. Americans, on the other hand, seem to have no qualms about permanantly marking their bodies with a language they do not understand. I have always suspected that when a tramp gets a tramp stamp that includes a Chinese character, it probably doesn’t say what she thinks it says.
It’s not that I lack trust in the American tattoo industry. I have great respect for the ability of tattoo artists to render with the utmost accuracy snakes riding motorcycles, naked women with butterfly wings and demons peeing on Chevrolet symbols. But it must be said, tattoo artists are not usually experts in Chinese calligraphy.
And you know what? According to the blog Hanzi Smatter, I was right! Hanzi Smatter is an extremely specific blog written by a trained translator. All they do at Hanzi Smatter is post pictures of people’s tattoos and provide their literal meanings. The tats are generally gibberish … at best. Sometimes people write in to the blog and ask for a translation:
I was talking about your website with a co-worker of mine, in reference to one of your articles. She wanted me to find out if the tattoo she got really means what she wanted it to mean (obviously!). Here is a pic of her tattoo. She thinks it means “Bitch.” What does it look like to you?
Thanks,
~Roger
Why would anyone wanted to label themselves in such negative way?
Typically bitch as noun is translated as 母狗 and 婊子 as slang.
What this woman tattooed 贱女 really means “cheap whore”.
Ahahahhhahhhhhahhaahahahhahhahhahahahhhahahahahahhahahahahahaa
