"I'm a badass, just look at my tat"

[Punch.HeadButt]

I've heard of this kind of thing happening with white guys who get asian character tattoos. It's just as funny the other way around.

[BJJ-Blue]

Tosh said something like this in a standup routine of his. It had me laughing hard.

[Syn7]

I've heard of this kind of thing happening with white guys who get asian character tattoos. It's just as funny the other way around.

If it was real.

[Punch.HeadButt]

If it was real.

The laughs I got out of it? Totally real.

The jelly is not taken from my donut. My parade remains dry.

[Syn7]

lol...

i like boston creme... i dont even know what that sh1t is inside, and it can't be that good for you, but that stuff is tasty!!!

ive met a few cats who have japanese or chinese tats that are wrong... it really pays off to do your research when youre gonna ink yourself... lots of folks use symbols the wrong way too... lots of egyptian symbols are misunderstood...

i have no ink. i lived with a tatoo artist and they always tried to talk me into it but i never have... im just not a jewelry or tattoo kinda person... i did design one for kicks though, and if i ever did get one it would be that one. but it was just fun to design, i'll never actually do it. no need to mark the temple, all the landmarks speak for themselves...

[jdhowland]

...no need to mark the temple, all the landmarks speak for themselves...

This made me smile.

I was once asked to design a tat for a co-worker. He said he had been in SE Asia and saw a calligraphy design he liked in a shop. He asked a store clerk what it meant and was told, "follow your heart." For years afterward he thought he would like to have it as a tattoo. He knew that I do some brush art and asked me to come up with the hanji for this. I have enough linguistic training to know that an English idiom won't translate directly into another language, so I asked a Japanese friend who is the only expert calligrapher in my neck of the woods. She came up with about a dozen possible combinations. None of them meant anything like what my friend wanted because it's not a Japanese sentiment. Hide your heart would have been possible, but not follow it.

I should have asked a Taoist.

[charp choi]

I remember a story like this in the UK a few years ago:

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/essays/tattoos.htm

[GeneChing]

We do have a Kung Fu (and other Martial Arts) Tattoos thread on the main, but this seems less martial related, more OT, so it can stand alone. I post this for the cross reference.

[Punch.HeadButt]

i like boston creme... i dont even know what that sh1t is inside, and it can't be that good for you, but that stuff is tasty!!!

Call me mainstream, but I'll take good ol' raspberry jelly.

ive met a few cats who have japanese or chinese tats that are wrong... it really pays off to do your research when youre gonna ink yourself... lots of folks use symbols the wrong way too... lots of egyptian symbols are misunderstood...

i have no ink. i lived with a tatoo artist and they always tried to talk me into it but i never have... im just not a jewelry or tattoo kinda person... i did design one for kicks though, and if i ever did get one it would be that one. but it was just fun to design, i'll never actually do it. no need to mark the temple, all the landmarks speak for themselves...

I've heard a few stories, the one jdhowland linked is the only I've seen get an article. Though I feel for the people that get burned, if you're paying someone to permanently write something on your body in ANY language and you don't make the effort to know first-hand what's being said...well, a fool and his money. I once designed a custom tattoo for myself as well, and it was centered around a Chinese character . The design itself was actually awesome, I wish I could find where I left it lying around. At the time I made it, I couldn't afford a custom tat. By the time I could afford it, I didn't want it and frankly felt like an idiot for ever considering getting it. I don't see myself ever getting a tattoo nowadays...as you said, no reason to.

[Syn7]

usually its simple stuff like a cat wantsd to get a tat that says "harmony" or something like that in japanese or chinese and it ends up saying "dump truck" or something weird, but not offensive... usually its ignorance rather than malicious artistsout to get dumb people...