HS reader & Big Brother 8 watcher Jenn G. emailed me this screen shot of Amber's tattoo,
According to Jenn G., in one of the previous episodes, Amber claimed her tattoos are:
Family
Strength
Honor
Wisdom
If anyone has seen the particular episode, please confirm if Amber has made such claim.
I wonder whether the beginning is her name -- especially the first two look like they could be a transliteration of "Amber".
ReplyDeleteThe last two look like Japanese kana "o ha".
I think the first symbol means tranquility, but what do the others mean. I'm guessing that it isn't what Amber thinks they mean.
ReplyDeleteTranquility (or cheap)
ReplyDeleteOldest brother
Daughter
Younger sister
Mother
Good morning! ("Oha" is a very casual shortening of "Ohayo gozaimasu.")
Wtf at "oha".
ReplyDeleteReminds me of Oharock:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL_9CL-cqpg
The first two definitely look like "Amber" in Chinese. Then you have daughter, younger sister, mother, and (my guess for the kana at the bottom" "aunt," which should be おば but is missing its marks to change that "ha" to "ba."
ReplyDelete安伯 might make 'Amber' in Chinese, but in Japanese it makes 'Yasunori', which is a guy's name.
ReplyDeleteI was just posting this response to my original question, when Amber started talking about her tattoo on the live feeds.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I can't record it, but someone else may. Amber told Jameka and Jen that it stands for the different phases of her life:
Amber
Daughter
Younger Sister
Mother
Aunt
She hopes to add wife to the end of that.
I didn't hear her say what language they were in.
I would have said the first one was "Peace" it is Xi'an so I know the Chinese reading and meaning well, I've spent more time studying Japanese...
ReplyDeleteI also like the "Oba-san" theory on the two stray kana. At first I thought it was some verb or attempt at a verb...
Maybe they are all named Amber?
All is done by Kanji, just one by Kana. And in the context of female relatives, this one makes sense. Daughter, sister, mother and aunt. And the おは (oha) part is probably written for おば (oba) which means aunt-dots are missing. As of oji (uncle) and oba (aunt) being written with different kanji combinations like 叔父－伯父－小父 and 叔母－伯母－小母
ReplyDelete(first one: Elder brother/sister of father/mother, second one: Younger brother/sister of father/mother, third one: Persons of ages close to father/mother with no relationship) and they are seldomly used, the artist might have chosen using Hiragana (or maybe has not heard these words are actually written by Kanji. Of course using Japanese for family members and using Chinese for self is somehow questionable but...at least she has an idea what she had carved on her back.
If she meant "aunt," then the "oha" is kind of like getting "aun" tattooed on your back (if "aun" meant "Good morning!").
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that the words and characters were written awfully ugly.
ReplyDeleteThe top two Kanji could be a representation of Amber in Japanese as well. The first character commonly takes the reading An in compounds and apparently the second can be "ha" (which can become "ba" in compounds) but I had to look that up to check.
ReplyDeleteIf you showed it to a Japanese person , you'd need furigana so they wouldn't say it wrong.
Despite your rationalisations suggesting what the "o ha" Japanese hiragana could mean, I'm just going to keep believing it says "Good morning!" as Kuri has suggest. What an absolute classic ... I can't stop laughing.
ReplyDeleteOh, actually, you're right. The last two characters read "oha", they should be "oba". The "ha" is missing two tick marks " at the end (http://www.tokyowithkids.com/fyi/japanese/hiragana/hiragana1.gif).
ReplyDeleteSomeone should tell her so she could get it fixed...
yep, it's oha, from Shingo Katori's character "Shingo Mama". i had a good laugh at this reference as well...
ReplyDeleteand if it's japanese, wouldn't 安伯(Amber) mean cheap uncle? the rest i'll stay away from since it's been correctly translated already. even still, why would anyone list their family members by type in a list, and only the female members?
If she wanted 'Amber' in Japanese she could have gotten 'Kohaku' 琥珀, even though that's usually a boy's name.
ReplyDelete