(original)
If it was meant to be one character, then it would be the botched 陆 (陸), which means “land, ground, continent”. It could also be the simplified 書 (书) with a missing dot and simplified 撃 (击).
The two other characters are 拾 (pick up, collect, tidy up) and 式 (style, system, formula, rule).
So far, the best I can think of is “ground shipping system”.
Maybe he is a loyal UPS/DHL/FedEx employee or customer?
Update: Thanks to a comment by "lalawow", this tattoo may be "six-ten-two" or "sixty-two"
In Chinese, 陆 is also used as the accounting form of "six", 拾 as "ten", and 弍 (貳) as "two".
“陆”means six
ReplyDelete“拾”means ten
They are chinese capital letters of numbers. These capital letters are commonly used.
壹贰叁肆伍陆柒捌玖拾佰仟萬
=一二三四五六七八九十百千万
I thought the last letter is 式 instead of 弍。
ReplyDelete式 is uesd as a unit in martial arts and other actions.
This person probably want to tattoo 612 (maybe area code?) on his arm.
ReplyDeletemaybe "dumb ass" on his forehead.
ReplyDeleteLOVE your site. I always wondered why people have stupid tatoos when they don't know what it means and HERE IT IS!
Bless you.
It's definitely "sixty-two", though horribly written.
ReplyDeletelalawow - they're not capital letters. They're not even letters. They're complex forms/accounting forms. Big difference.
ReplyDeleteThe complex numerals are used to prevent forgeries on checks. With the simple forms one line can change a one into a ten. Or three lines can change a one into a six. This is impossible with the complex numerals.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese_types.htm#num
“The complex numerals are used on cheques, banknotes and coins and are the equivalent of writing 'one', 'two', 'three', etc, rather than 1, 2, 3.”
Forget the botched meaning. The tatoo looks like it was done by an 8 yr old. I mean, my baby sis has better form.
ReplyDelete