Saturday, May 28, 2011

from: Fryeda K.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, May 20, 2011 at 1:20 PM
subject: Tattoo

This idiot went to get "his name", but now gets "lots of laughs in Chinese restaurants".

So, the question is, what does it really say?

Thanks!



Although top character is , however it would not make any sense combining with .

Most likely it was a typo and intended tattoo is 精神, or spirit.

7 comments:

  1. I'm pretty sure the top character is meant to be 積. I'm not sure what 積神 is supposed to mean, but I'm guessing it's a misunderstanding of 精神.

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  2. The top part looks like 示青, but neither that nor ネ青 exist, at least not in my IME. Then it looks like a ス then a 神. Not that any of that makes sense.

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  3. Is the idiot's name 'Jackson'?

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  4. @ Anonymous:
    Is the idiot's name 'Jackson'?
    積神 when said in Cantonese, does sound a bit like "Jackson" in English. In Cantonese, 積 is the name of the card with the letter J on it, namely, the Jack. 神 = similar to "son / sun" but not quite when said in Cantonese.

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  5. Jackson, as a last name, Michael Jackson, for example, is 積遜 in Cantonese, and 傑克遜 via Mandarin.

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  6. @ anonymous: the radical in the first character is definitely 禾, not 示. I think it is an inept attempt to write 積.
    Actually not >too< bad for someone who doesn't know Chinese. I think the laughs are because the characters are so poorly written, not because of what it means.

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  7. 積got the meaning of stockpile, or stacking.神 means god. combined, you got "god of stockpiling or stacking". but hey, anyone who can read it can tell his name is Jackson, so its not that bad, just comes with other meaning. the most common translation is “傑森” or “傑遜” or “傑克森”

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