to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 2:32 PM
subject: tattoo interpretation
A coworker of mine has a tattoo he got while he was out partying a couple a years ago and has absolutely no idea what it means. Can you tell us?
Thanks,
Tim
Why would anyone be proud of tattoo that says: "to commit any imaginable evil"?
Interesting.
ReplyDeleteJapanese has a similar saying 無悪不造 (muaku fuzou/muaku buzou) which means that someone "does not hesitate to do as much evil as they want."
The meaning is very similar to the Chinese and only one character is different 作/造. The sayings must have been the same at one time but diverged somehow.
At any rate, this hardly seems something that one would want to boast about.
I'm curious what this person had in mind as they were obviously wasted.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Japanese interpretation would be more like 'Non-evil failure'. It sort of looks like it would be a 四字熟語, but then it would be more like 'A lack of evil will bring around failure in your work'... which is kinda insightful, in a weird kinda way!
ReplyDeleteIin Chinese, there's a sentence pattern "無…不…" , which means "do nothing but…"
ReplyDeleteBy Yahoo! dictionary ( http://0rz.tw/gU48s ) :
to stop at nothing in doing evil; to stop at no evil (or crime); to commit all manner (or sorts) of crimes; to be as wicked as possible
Just a quick question, does that translate literally to "without evil not made"?
ReplyDelete> does that translate literally to "without evil not made"?
ReplyDeleteMore like "[There is] no evil [I/he/she will] not do".
"Why would anyone be proud of tattoo that says: "to commit any imaginable evil"?"
ReplyDeleteActually that's kind of an awesome tattoo. Boring co-worker by day, committing any imaginable evil by night. Certainly better than finding out that it says 'bean curd'.
Actually, I think 'bean curd' would be a pretty awesome tattoo. But you have to be pretty hard core to get that tattoo...
ReplyDeleteI suspect he asked for something like "I want it to say 'Bad Ass!'" and this is what he got.
ReplyDeleteDezmond: if he was wasted the answer is "nothing, and that's the problem".
ReplyDeleteJamtea: then it's a 'Hanzi Smatter' version of a 'Dilbert' cartoon! What's the kanji representation of 'Pointy-Haired Boss'?
Late to the party, but as a near-native Mandarin communicator (nine seasons of Taiwanese public education) it means "no evil not committed" which is pretty much the same as what Tian proclaims. And yeah, this blog is *such* great amusement to anyone who understands the intended languages. Unlike non-Americans who only wear English gibberish on their clothing or take bizarre Anglo-sounding names, disaster ink is forever. Keep up the good (and hilariously bad) work, y'all!
ReplyDelete