The Great Chinese Tattoo Scandal!

A few years ago I went through a faze of getting tattoos. I got 5 in the space of a year. One of these is on my chest right over my heart. Its about 1" square.
I was very pleased with said tattoo which I understood meant "love" from the wall chart where it came. It drew its share of attention on days I went topless, with girls and guys asking what it meant complimenting me on it.

All was well untill the other day I was having a conversation with a Chinese student at my Uni and I showed her my tattoo. She then had a strange look on her face. It comes to light that my favourite tattoo actually means or is part of the word "girl" in a Chinese dialect i have looked it up on the web and it has been confirmed

SHIT!

I am now the laughing stock of the small (but vibrant) club for Chinese students at my Uni.

If you want to know what it looks like: http://www.okdaily.com/cgi-bin/ecdict.cgi?english=girl

Its the first symbol of the two.

I looked up SUICIDE too.
Hmm should I????????

Now you have me wondering about mine...

No. This is why people should do that: so that I can laugh at them.

hey, nothing wrong with that... do you love girls?

fashion victim

Suckaaaaaah

The wall is bad. Never trust the wall. Did Pink Floyd teach you nothing?

Well of course. Whats really bothering me now is whether or not I go and put Suicide before or above it.

Yes I know it sounds like a bad idea but the damage is done now and besides I'd get a bigger kick out of having that combination of words on my chest in a language very few people I know understands than one I didn't want.

(edited for spelling)

[Edited on Feb 15, 2004 by TheTimebomb]

By the way, sue the tattoo artist. He deserves it.

As usual Flux nails it in the fewest amount of words needed.

Nothing to add, move along.

[Edited on Feb 15, 2004 by Mullen]

Flux is the coolest toughest girl on teh site

Man just tell them you like having a girl close to your heart. Cheesy, yea, but not embarrassing. Or maybe it is , I dunno.

Yup, I agree with Flux and Roxy on this one. I read about something similar where a guy had what he thought read Strong Lover, in Chinese. It actually translated as Man Love I wouldn't get any words on me that I couldn't read or understand, which sucks, as I'd like this

down the outer edge of my forearm, but it doesn't translate, and even if it did, I don't know what words I'd have
Spike

I've always been against foreign language tatoos, unless you have some deep personal connection with that language or that culture.

Interestingly enough, this isn't the first time I've heard about this happening to someone. A friend of mine in the army tried to get "soldier" in japanese, and found out the next day that it actually said "rainbow".... the ink wasn't healed yet, so he sandpapered his skin off, and it actually looks ok now.

The parlor said they had no idea.... they just get the big sheets; the people that make them are having the big joke.

Lol, good one.

As far as sticking to a language you understand goes, I say that if I had spent time doing the research then I wouldn't be in this pickle.

When I got those tattoos I was 16-17. Some of them meant different things to me then than what they do now (literally in one case) I have changed a lot since I got them. If I had waited till now (25) I would have got completly different ones or maybe not at all.

Moral of the thread: Think HARD before you decide to get a tat and if you really want to then think HARDER about what you are going to get.

That's pretty hardcore How has it healed up now? Are there any signs of the tattoo, is it scarred, or just healed up normally?
Spike

Hmmm... you have a point there.

This is someone I've known on IRC for many years, but we've never met in real life. He said that there was some slight scarring and residue, but you wouldn't notice it unless you were looking for it.

Sounds like a good idea to me, that is, not getting them.

[Edited on Feb 15, 2004 by SupremePizzaMan]