The Stubborn Italian

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Ease of Gas Retention

From Brazil, reader Joao (a long time Japanese student) sent in a photo of this young man proudly displaying his cool tattoo at a party.



Besides the fact the characters are poorly written, the true meaning of the tattoo may not be as what the owner intended.

(air, gas, steam, vapor; spirit), (stop, halt, desist; detain), (peaceful, quiet; happy, healthy), could be interpreted as “ease of gas retention”.

Perhaps this is some kind of viral ad campaign by makers of gas-relief medications?


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Bad Hanzi in Beijing

Joel Martinsen of Danwei.org has sent me this scan from a newspaper in Beijing.

Although Hanzi Smatter mostly focuses on the misuse of Chinese characters in Western culture, I had to comment about this. Especially the glaring error in the story has embarrassed Beijing City’s Traffic Bureau.


(larger view)

The painted (pedestrian crossing) has an extra dot in .

I should also point out that in Japanese, does indeed include the extra dot.

Related: "SOTP" and "SHCOOL"

Update: March 24, 2006 - UN to Stop Using Traditional Chinese Characters after 2008.


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"Wilson"


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60318/high/bmepb238792.jpg

This tattoo is Chinese transliteration of “Uriah Wilson” by Isaac Villarreal in Lytle, Texas.

I personally have never met anyone that is named “Uriah”, only “Uria”, therefore I don’t know if the three characters on the left side are the correct or acceptable translation.

But I have met plenty of “Wilson”, and that second character in is definitely incorrect. It has been rotated 90 degrees clockwise.


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"Skin, Hair, Body"


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60307/high/bmepb236775.jpg

This tattoo
was shown in March 7th of BMEzine’s kanji gallery without any caption.

The first character (leather, skin) and last character (body) are done correctly. I am having trouble on deciding if the owner wanted (capitol of Anhui province) or (hair, milli-) in the center.

As of right now, I think it should be , which means “skin, hair, body”.

In a previous post, owner of a claims she was told it meant “carpe diem”, which is wrong.


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Interviews and Comics

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NBA Body Art - Tale of My Chinese Tattoo

SI20060306_NBA_chinesetattoos
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/players/02/28/tattoos0306/index.html

In the upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated, NBA players were interviewed about their Chinese tattoos.

When asked about why tattooing in Chinese, Marcus Camby replied: "I was into a lot of Chinese flicks, a lot of [kung fu] movies."

Jeff McInnis explains: "I got the dictionary and looked mine up. Some people don't know what theirs mean. They just get them because they look good."

What about Shawn Marion?

Update: An article in Chinese about NBA players' tattoos.


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