Saturday, November 6, 2010

from: Gary B.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 1:59 PM
subject: Tattoo translation help

Hey

Lovin' your blog.

I got my tattoo aged 17 and it means a lot to me as it's meant to be the initials of people who are important to me, but I fear that I may well have been tattooed by someone who didn't actually know what they were talking about. It's meant to read:

JSG
PB
R

I know now that the Chinese alphabet doesn't have these letters, so I'm not hopeful, but intrigued to know what it means.

Many thanks for your help, it's really appreciated.

Gary

CIMG3228

Another sucker of the gibberish font.
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4 comments:

  1. bob_dNovember 6, 2010 at 6:51 PM

    Another sad story. (If a tattooist claims Chinese characters represent initials, I can guarantee they don't know what they're talking about.)
    I'm amazed that there are people who claim to have read this blog but still think it's possible that some Chinese characters might represent letters...

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 7, 2010 at 11:16 AM

    Just a quick question, I realise this is gibberish but are the characters completely fake, or do they have meanings but just make no sense?

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 7, 2010 at 12:55 PM

    Right to left, top to bottom:
    武 = martial, as in Martial arts
    氣 = Air, breath, Ki in Japanese & Korean, Chi/Qi in Chinese, as in Qigong, etc...

    武氣 doesn't make sense as a fixed phrase.

    The 3rd character doesn't exist and assumed to be an incorrect way of writing 充 or 巟 or even a combo of both.
    4th character should be 首 with poor penmanship.
    5th character = 流 meaning "To flow".

    充首流 or 巟首流 doesn't exist as a set phrase.

    6th character = 術 meaning "skill".

    The whole thing = mumbo jumbo.

    武術 = wushu or martial arts in general.

    I have to guess that 首 should be 道 and would make more sense when combined with 氣 to form 合氣道, with a missing 合. 合氣道 = Hapkido, a Korean form of martial arts.

    充 = to fill/ refill / recharge as in 充电/充電 = to refill [anything that needs power, like a cellphone or battery, etc...]

    流电/流電 = the electrical power is leaking/ battery leakage, etc.. 流电/流電, short for "交流电/交流電" can also mean A/C power
    or
    voltaism.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousNovember 7, 2010 at 3:10 PM

    Thanks for the translation, quite frustrating reading someones story to scroll below the picture and see nothing there .-.

    ReplyDelete