素 = raw, simple, pure, or vegetarian （depends on context)
世 = world, era, generation
太 = very, too, excessively
Even if this person would like to proclaim a world or a lifestyle of simplicity or vegetarianism, the tattoo of random characters is way too hard for anyone to understand.
ok this one sounds like a mytical character or fairy etc out of some chinese novel like fung sheng yin yi... (pardon my poor pinyin.....)
ReplyDeleteI know the last two characters from what little Japanese I know...the second one is 'sekai' (world) and the third looks like 'inu' (dog)! Don't know what the first one would/could be in Japanese.
ReplyDeleteWhat does the unsuspecting victim think is written in red ink on their nape?
犬 = dog, canine
ReplyDelete大 = big, large
太 = excessive
天 = sky, heaven, day
人 = person
The character 太 (Japanese) can mean "plump, thick, big-around". I've seen it as 太い, used to describe an impressively large dildo.
ReplyDeleteThe character for dog is 犬.
I'm not even remotely fluent, but man... what a great idea for a blog. :) One question -- where do you get the tattoo pictures? If I had a crappy, non-correct tattoo, I surely would not advertise the fact.
Some of the stuff are photographs I have taken myself. Others are from readers email me photos of tattoos and other Chinese/Japanese related items. For example, in this entry, she has emailed her collection of bad Chinese tattoos.
ReplyDeleteActually, "sekai" in Japanese is two characters: 世界 ; the first character alone is just "sei." It's also used in words like 世代 , "generation."
ReplyDeleteI've noticed a few spurious posts here due to Japanese/Chinese meaning differences; you've got to watch it! My favourite example is 手紙 .
I would like to reply to the last "Anonymous" comment:
ReplyDeleteIn case you did not notice, the translation of 世 was posted as "world, era, generation" by Tian. Therefore it was correct.
At the same time, this is a perfect example of why one should not tattoo Kanji or Hanzi on themselves, because the characters are used by both Chinese and Japanese with various meanings.
It is not Tian's fault that he translated the tattoo as "vegetarian world excessively". That is exactly what the tattoo meant in Chinese!
If the moron who bears the tattoo would do some better research, then we would not have all the confusion.
Your last comment here was simply "蛋中尋骨" or "looking for bones inside an egg".
It is possible that instead of 太, the person actually mean to use 态. In that case 世态 is a phrase that should most closely translates to "things occured around the world"
ReplyDeleteAt the top of this is a Japanese Mon. It's the Japanese equivalent to a family crest.
ReplyDeleteI will forever wonder why white people are getting someone elses family crest tattooed on them.
I've seen 太 in Japanese to imply someone/something is fat. However, it makes about as much sense in Japanese as it does in Chinese. Ech.
ReplyDelete