Monday, August 20, 2007

Amber's Tattoo from Big Brother 8

I don't watch reality television shows, therefore I have no idea who Amber is. Apparently she is one of the house guests in Big Brother 8.

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.
at

16 comments:

  1. PhilipAugust 21, 2007 at 1:08 AM

    I wonder whether the beginning is her name -- especially the first two look like they could be a transliteration of "Amber".

    The last two look like Japanese kana "o ha".

    ReplyDelete
  2. LynneAugust 21, 2007 at 7:06 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  3. kuriAugust 21, 2007 at 9:32 AM

    Tranquility (or cheap)
    Oldest brother
    Daughter
    Younger sister
    Mother
    Good morning! ("Oha" is a very casual shortening of "Ohayo gozaimasu.")

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Takeout Wench.August 21, 2007 at 5:55 PM

    Wtf at "oha".
    Reminds me of Oharock:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL_9CL-cqpg

    ReplyDelete
  5. DurfAugust 21, 2007 at 10:53 PM

    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
  6. LeicaAugust 22, 2007 at 8:05 AM

    安伯 might make 'Amber' in Chinese, but in Japanese it makes 'Yasunori', which is a guy's name.

    ReplyDelete
  7. revidescentAugust 22, 2007 at 6:23 PM

    I was just posting this response to my original question, when Amber started talking about her tattoo on the live feeds.

    Unfortunately, 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.

    ReplyDelete
  8. MuskieAugust 22, 2007 at 11:53 PM

    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...

    I 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?

    ReplyDelete
  9. ulasAugust 23, 2007 at 7:28 AM

    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
    (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.

    ReplyDelete
  10. kuriAugust 27, 2007 at 1:18 PM

    If she meant "aunt," then the "oha" is kind of like getting "aun" tattooed on your back (if "aun" meant "Good morning!").

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousSeptember 9, 2007 at 10:02 AM

    Not to mention that the words and characters were written awfully ugly.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousOctober 8, 2007 at 9:28 PM

    The 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.

    If you showed it to a Japanese person , you'd need furigana so they wouldn't say it wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousDecember 1, 2007 at 2:08 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousDecember 1, 2007 at 7:11 AM

    Oh, 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).
    Someone should tell her so she could get it fixed...

    ReplyDelete
  15. moxieFebruary 7, 2008 at 3:29 AM

    yep, it's oha, from Shingo Katori's character "Shingo Mama". i had a good laugh at this reference as well...

    and 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?

    ReplyDelete
  16. plumespixieSeptember 11, 2009 at 3:33 AM

    If she wanted 'Amber' in Japanese she could have gotten 'Kohaku' 琥珀, even though that's usually a boy's name.

    ReplyDelete