Friday, September 30, 2005
Monday, September 26, 2005
"Forever Protector of Old Ladies"
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Sunday, September 25, 2005
Friday, September 23, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Monday, September 19, 2005
"Not to Forget"
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A50905/high/bmegl123854.jpg
忘不了 is a common Chinese phrase that meant "
Oh, the irony...
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"Life" Mirrored
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A50823/high/bmegl119642.jpg
If you managed to get 神 done correctly on the arm, why couldn't you do the same with 生?!
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Saturday, September 17, 2005
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Blood Sweat Tear
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A50913/high/bmegl132714.jpg
It seems every time my buddy Shannon Larratt updates the BME's Kanji tattoo gallery, there are always some fools showing off their poorly done tats. Sometimes the same mistake on one tattoo reappears on someone else, as if it is some kind of infectious disease.
This guy wanted "blood sweat tear" on his arm. I am curious if the extra red dot in 汗 (sweat) was intentionally placed there for dramatic effect or tattooist's carelessness. The last character 淚 (tear) is missing two strokes, one in right upper corner and one in the right lower corner.
Use "HANZI2006" to save 10% on any t-shirt purchase at Jlist.com, and save 25% for 3 shirts or more.
Monday, September 12, 2005
"tank"
http://photobucket.com/albums/y198/tank666/?action=view¤t=Picture001.jpg
Many Asian countries use squatting type toilets, where the user squat over a water trench and water would wash the bio-mass down into the septic tank. These types of toilets in China are called 糞槽 (feces trench) or 尿槽 (urine trench).
The character 槽 may also mean “tank”, “trough”, and “groove” depends on context.
I had a good laugh when a reader emailed in his friend’s tattoo (see above) and said his friend wanted “tank” (military type, not the toilet kind) on him because he liked military tanks and he is a big guy.
By the way, “tank” (military type) in Chinese is 坦克 or 戰車, and 戦車 in Japanese.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Tiger, According to the Flash Book
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeyplaid/34018004/
The character shown in the photo is far from 虎 (tiger). Since it was shown in the tattoo template book, then it must be correct, rignt?
Wrong.
Another one bites the dust, I mean needle.
Tattooed Twits
www.stuffmagazine.com
Thanks to everyone for emailing me about Hanzi Smatter been featured in October 2005 issue of STUFF Magazine.
-Tian
tiangotlost at gmail dot com
Thursday, September 8, 2005
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A50905/high/bmegl123947.jpgThe English word “screw” bears many meanings include “a rod-shaped piece with a spiral groove and a slotted or recessed head designed to be inserted into material by rotating (as with a screwdriver ) and used for fastening pieces of solid material together”, and in vulgar slang, “an act of sexual intercourse”.
The slang term “screw this” usually has meaning equivalent to “forget about it”. Unfortunately English slang often does not direct translate very well contextually into Chinese or Japanese.
This young man probably wanted to express his angst of “screw this” in Chinese (螺絲釘這), yet did not have the patience to verify if the contextual translation was correct or not. His tattoo literally means “insert screw-nail here”, which is something that comes with furniture assembly instruction.
Or he could be a loyal employee of IKEA corporation.
tattoo_baojimenglonggongxionghuanfulei2.jpg
Anyone who has ever stepped into a Chinese restaurant would know there are twelve Chinese zodiac. Apparently in the world this guy is living in, there are only nine. One of the zodiac has then replaced with “leopard” (豹) and the rest are random mirrored characters mixed with Chinese and Japanese. Of course, he did not believe his friends when they pointed them out to him, until now...
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Un-healthy
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A50905/high/bmegl127259.jpg
I don't know whether it was the client or tattooist's idea to give 康 a little "artistic flare". After all, who wants just a plain boring "healthy" to be tattooed in English? Unfortunately, they have done a pretty bad job and the tattooed character is missing several strokes.
Monday, September 5, 2005
"Respect"
http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/PD--10288287/Kanji.htm?sOrig=SCH&ui=1EE7518CC6DA4451BD4B293EDF22FE3E#
This "Respect" poster is for sale at various online stores. Both characters are poorly written. The top character 尊 is missing a horizontal stroke in the 酋 partial, and both top two strokes are suppose to be stand alone. The bottom character 敬 is missing its 口 partial.
Thursday, September 1, 2005
Fake Zodiacs
http://nch46.eden2.netclusive.de/lj/023.jpg
Several years ago, this young man went to a tattoo shop in Germany and wanted zodiacs of his mother, sister and himself in Chinese characters to be tattooed on his back. He was very proud of it.
One friend of his has always thought the tattooed characters are fake and then sent a photo of it to a multi-lingual translation service. The translators could not figure out what exactly are those characters. Eventually, they have concluded the characters are gibberish that only mimicked Chinese and Japanese style of characters.
When I first saw this photo, the characters looked similar to some Chinese characters, but none of them are for zodiac.
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