Sunday, October 10, 2004

"Real Melon Knows Men"?





The four characters can be translated as following:



真 = true or real

瓜 = melon

智 = wisdom or intelligence

男 = man or male



I guess she wants everyone know that she got a smart melon on her shoulders and will not fooled by men. But not smart enough to realize the tattoo she got is complete gibbrish.



12 comments:

  1. ok that tattoo is pure 100% undiluted rubbish....makes absolutely no sense

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  2. You think she meant 狐, maybe?

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  3. 真瓜智男 is the name of the guy above.
    It is just like Nico's case.

    If read in Japanese,
    真 = Ma
    瓜 = Uri
    智 = Chi
    男 = O
    respectively.
    "Maurizio" should be his name.

    素世太 on his back should be her name, but I can't guess. Here is how each letter is read in Japanese.
    素 = So, Su, Moto
    世 = Se, Sei, Ze, Yo
    太 = Ta

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  4. They should have used katakana.

    Katakana is Japanese transliteration for words from foreign languages (called gairaigo).

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  5. Well, yes. It is quite standard to use katakana.

    But, Japanese people also like to use kanji to write western names like this. It is sometimes just for fun (like these people), and sometimes seriously. And some western people who visit Japan ask their Japanese friends to create kanji version of their name.

    Some people who were born out of Japan and later acquire Japan nationality sometimes do this.
    For example, a football player in the national team uses 三都主 as his official name for his Brazillian name Santos.

    Historically, many people from outside of kanji culture had this sort of kanji names in Japan and even in China.

    It IS funny, but not wrong and never "complete gibbrish."

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  6. anonymous: I'm guessing "Suzetta" or something along that line...

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  7. Can't "gua" mean idiot, as in "sha gua"? Could she be trying to say, "Real fools know men"? Maybe she's a militant lesbian or something?

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  8. It may be phonetically meaningful as a name in Japanese, but in Chinese it's gibberish at worst and amateurish at best. It could be interpreted as meaning "a true melon is wise to men" or "a true melon; a wise man". It doesn't even sound like a name in Chinese: "zhen gua zhi nan".

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  9. Maybe 'melons' are used as a metaphore.. and she tries to point out that real men know that her breasts are not fake ;)

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  10. I really think its the guy's name. For example "深田恭子" is the name of Kyoko Fukada, one Japanese celebrity. If translated into mandarin, it would literally mean "deep rice field respect/congratulate son". So please do not assume every chinese seeming character out there is actually meant to be chinese. It may be kanji. And there may be actually an intended meaning to it.

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  11. At the top of this is a Japanese Mon. It's the Japanese equivalent to a family crest.

    I will forever wonder why white people are getting someone elses family crest tattooed on them.

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