Sunday, December 31, 2006

"Stop Woman Flow"

Two months ago, a young man named "Chuck" posted his tattoo which supposedly to be his daughter's initials in Chinese in BMEzine's tattoo gallery.

However, his choice of characters was not the best, and his tattoo proudly indicating to everyone that he menstruates regularly.


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A61204/high/bmepb404816.jpg

Today while browsing through the tattoo gallery, another young man is boasting his own (Dec. 4, 2006).

止女流 means "stop woman flow".

Is this some type of viral advertisement for feminine hygiene products? Perhaps I should forward it to my good friend, Steve Hall, at Adrants.com.
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12 comments:

  1. coljacDecember 31, 2006 at 8:25 PM

    One of my dictionaries translates 女流 as "the weaker sex (derog)". Probably not the best tattoo for honoring a daughter.

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 1, 2007 at 1:06 PM

    For those who don't recognize the country outline surrounding the characters, it's Wales.

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  3. SalvoJanuary 1, 2007 at 5:02 PM

    And what's with the map of Wales?

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  4. GlennJanuary 2, 2007 at 3:02 AM

    @coljac: I do see "女流" as part of "女流之輩" in many wuxia novels, and while I don't think it's derogatory in most contexts, it is typically used to denote the female gender as being weaker.

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 3, 2007 at 10:04 AM

    I am part Welsh and spent a couple of years living there. Every youngish person I met in the valleys it seemed was into 1) rabid Welsh patriotism and 2) anime - and therefore by extension 'Asiany stuff' and stupid tattoos. I was asked on a couple of occasions to help out with tattoos in Japanese characters for Welsh people whose knowledge of Japanese began and ended with being able to name the robots from Gundam.
    This tattoo is exceptional however in that it covers both points 1 and 2 simultaneously.
    Well done, Mr. Welshman!
    ...That said, this limb could just as easily belong to one of the many delicate young ladies one can see on a night out in Ebbw Vale...

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  6. adamriceJanuary 3, 2007 at 1:29 PM

    I wonder if perhaps the second character was meant to be "文" -- not that it would make any more sense.

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  7. AnonymousJanuary 3, 2007 at 3:09 PM

    This one is easy. Referring back to Tian's blog on "Asian Font Mystery" you get what the initials are supposed to be: H.A.R.

    This guy does not have a clue that there is no such a thing as initials in Chinese, let along what these words mean.

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  8. AnonymousJanuary 8, 2007 at 4:53 PM

    Perhaps, by indicating that he is stopping women's flows (i.e. getting them pregnant), he is trying to bring across the point that he is a major rake.

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  9. Mark BaseJanuary 12, 2007 at 12:56 AM

    Hiya,

    Don't know if you remember, but I asked you for a Chinese translation of a rather odd phrase for a tattoo.

    Well, I had it done a few months ago, but forgot to send you a pic, as you'd requested...So... follow this link to have a look!

    And thanks very much for your help!

    I'll add your a link to your blog from mine.

    Cheers!

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  10. innumerabilisJanuary 14, 2007 at 9:01 AM

    I suppose if you take the middle character to be "文", then it can be interpreted as stopping the exodus of talent (止文流).

    "Wen liu" is not a good translation for "talent exodus", but since a tattoo is permanent baring some painful measures, I suppose the poor guy can use this as a cover.

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  11. RickFebruary 16, 2007 at 1:03 PM

    The tattoo apparantly means that he stops all feminine processes dead in their tracks.

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  12. AjMarch 13, 2007 at 9:29 PM

    I looked up 女流（じょりゅう), and found that it can mean authoress in Japanese. So does this tattoo mean....stop women writers?

    ReplyDelete