Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Reader Eric C. emailed me this ad for aussieBum underwear.



From Engrish & Hanzi Smatter

The top two characters appeared to me as mirrored 决心 ("determination"). I have no idea what the reference of two characters below, 伐大, is about. 伐 means "[to] cut down", and 大 means "big".

Oh dear...

I think the model has unintentionally tattooed himself with "determined to cut down something big".


Update: I found a photo of the same male model via Google, who is he?

at

8 comments:

  1. TravelerFebruary 25, 2009 at 7:49 PM

    And just to add some flavor: What this blog always calls "mirrored", with admirable restraint and delicacy, is what most of us would call "hilariously reversed by a tattoo 'artist' even more clueless about hanzi than the rest of the ink-wielding illiterati".

    It's utterly amazing that 'artists' and victims alike refuse to do a lick of research before subjecting skin to permanent defacing. Keep up the good work in exposing this goofiness, Tian!

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 26, 2009 at 5:14 AM

    @traveler

    you actually thought about the possibility that the actual photographer mirrored the image during the post-processing phase ???

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  3. DanaFebruary 26, 2009 at 9:29 AM

    @Anonymous

    If they reversed the image the lettering on the waistband of his shorts would be reversed too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. kattebelletjeFebruary 26, 2009 at 11:37 AM

    Perhaps he is called 'Ford' ? Just guessing....

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  5. NancyFebruary 26, 2009 at 8:43 PM

    In this case two of the characters would be backwards no matter which way the photo was faced.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousFebruary 27, 2009 at 11:14 AM

    伐 can mean "step" like in “步伐”。
    so 伐大 means big step or walk in stride. it might be japanese as well

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousApril 6, 2009 at 6:10 AM

    if he were just some twat in a bar I'd just chuckle and move on, but this guy is a model. if I thought I could make a living by stripping down and flashing my bod to the world I'd be a lot more careful about what got permanently inked on my skin.

    ... although it doesn't exactly seem to be destroying his career...

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  8. mennamachineApril 15, 2009 at 10:38 AM

    I think it's Jonathan from Make Me a Supermodel. I seem to recall him having a pseudo-asian tattoo. It's on tonight if you want to check it out (I have a hot date)

    http://www.bravotv.com/make-me-a-supermodel/bio/jonathan

    ReplyDelete