For those wanting kanji tattoos

[Nanbanjin]

http://www.soufoaklin.com/tattooartist.html

[Infinity]

oh crap....(quickly doing a google search on chinese characters)

[Stephen]

I feel a little sorry for these people, but as i'm not much of a fan of this 'trend' i gotta admit its kinda funny....I've even heard of the same thing happening here in Australia as well as in Indonesia:)

[Infinity]

http://www.canoe.ca/LifewiseMirrorsBodyMind00/1208_tattoo_ap.html

i never knew it was that popular.
no, i dont have a tattoo of the symbol for infinity...

[Infinity]

check these out!
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/kanji1.html

[Andoru]

http://www.soufoaklin.com/tattooartist.html
1 word: OWNED!

I can emphatise with Mr Sakai though.

[akahige]

http://www.soufoaklin.com/tattooartist.html That's hilarious! :laugh:

[KendokaJim]

I have a Kanji tattoo... but I made sure to find out exactly what I wanted and exactly what the kanji meant beforehand. Just trusting an artist to tattoo what you want in another language is just plain stupid. Although, if I weren't at least part Japanese, I never would have gotten a kanji tattoo in the first place. Besides, what kind of narcissistic person gets "beautiful goddess" tattooed on them anyway?! She got what she paid for!

[Lloromannic]

I really want a tattoo saying baka gaijin.


Besides, what kind of narcissistic person gets "beautiful goddess" tattooed on them anyway?!

A prostitute.

[crabbi]

....OMG!!!!

I can kind of sympathise with the tattoo artist... but these people are scarred (even if they might deserve it!?!)...

Very interesting!!

Often, when you go abroad you will see T-Shirts with random English words arranged on the front... you know the sort of thing : 'Station Athletic College Tea-Leaf'... concise and meaningful...!

I used to have a bathrobe with a beautiful Kanji character on the back which I used to proudly parade to 'acquaintances'... until one day a Chinese girl asked me why I had @Fireman' written on my robe...!!

Now if that had been a tattoo I would have been seriously irritated!!!

Aaah ... vanity... thy name is crabbi!!!

cheers

crabbi

[Neil Gendzwill]

From the 'About Us' link on the site:

Souf Oaklin fo' Life!!! (S.O.F.L.) grew out of a collaboration of labors of love. Its format is primarily derived from the national satircal newspaper The Onion (www.theonion.com), a newspaper which uses extreme points of view to challenge the reader to think about American thought, values, and culture. It is an equal opportunity offender which tackles political correctness, racism, bigotry, sexism, and just about every other "-ism" or "-ology" in between.

[crabbi]

From the 'About Us' link on the site:

Souf Oaklin fo' Life!!! (S.O.F.L.) grew out of a collaboration of labors of love. Its format is primarily derived from the national satircal newspaper The Onion (www.theonion.com (http://www.theonion.com/)), a newspaper which uses extreme points of view to challenge the reader to think about American thought, values, and culture. It is an equal opportunity offender which tackles political correctness, racism, bigotry, sexism, and just about every other "-ism" or "-ology" in between.
Thanks for that Neil... I regularly read The Onion but I'd never heard of SOFL before...

Very entertaining!

BTW... I always enjoy your posts M8... always an interesting and informed perspective...

Cheers

crabbi

[ukenagashi]

that sakai tattoo guy has a point, i would get irritaded when people ask for something in kanji to look good, they should at least know what they want and what it actually means, some one in england whent to a hairdressers that also do tattoos, and they got a list of kanji with the english alphabet under each kanji, she wanted her boyfriend's name and when she got the tattoo it was really bad but i cant remember what it was.

i want one that says 'gaijin no ashi' so i know what to look for when i need some new shoes :wink:

[EzzzE]

hmm i'm also gonna tattoo my name, but on my shinai...

errr anyone who speaks japanese: is eedorian the best translation for Adrian ?

[crabbi]

How about this:

エ ドゥ リ ア ヌ
e du ri a nu

Remember that the 'U' at the end of words is usually aspirated (not sounded)...

If you want to check the katakana check here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana

cheers

crabbi

[EzzzE]

hm what about eidorian(n) ?
エイドリアン
えいどりあん
seems to be nearer to the english pronounciation?

and now there's of course the question , which should i take, hiragana or katakana......any suggestions ?

[crabbi]

I really can't judge which Katakana version would be better... I only speak a little Japanese and am familiar with Japanese pronunciation... so I chose the closest I could match to the UK pronunciation of the name Adrian...

As to Hiragana... my understanding is that Katakana is generally used for foreign words (such as your name) and Hiragana is used for adding syllables in Japanese words...

Your best bet is to show these various transliterations into Katakana to a Japanese Native speaker and get them to pronounce each one for you...

Or maybe a genuinely bilingual Kendoka could help you through this thread...

Any takers?

Cheers

crabbi

[Twobitmage]

I always wanted my family name tattooed but at least I know what the characters are so I'm not worried

on a side note though, those tattoes looked crap to me. It looks like a 2nd grade japanese student's hand writing

[EzzzE]

hm spoke to a native speaker, now i've got my name on my shinai bag in nice gold letters :)

[Anime12478]

I never knew about the hatred that some asians have about this. Just to clarify, is it a problem that people get kanji that might say "girl power" or "black goddess" and not know the true meaning, or is it a problem of gaijin getting a kanji tattoos and they are not "asian"? If I wanted to get a tattoo, I would get a true combination that would make sense in the original language AND make sure I get exactly what I want.

[Twobitmage]

I guess the problem they might have is a lack of respect.

Treating it as something thats "cool" might be considered disrespectful to someone of asian descent.


hm what about eidorian(n) ?
エイドリアン
えいどりあん
seems to be nearer to the english pronounciation?

and now there's of course the question , which should i take, hiragana or katakana......any suggestions ?


oh and for your name, if it is a foreign name its more or less customary to use katakana (the first one). Although japanese people use katakana alot nowadays..

[Vortex]

“Insert General Tso’s Chicken Here!”



God, I just shot orange juice out my nose when I read that... Totally unexpected!! Thats too funny!!!

[Stimpson J. Cat]

The only thing I find I find strange about this is that it took so long to hear about somebody doing it. Years ago I heard a comic doing a bit about some girl telling him her tattoo said "Beautiful love child" or something just as his Chinese buddy was walking up. The Chinese buddy said "No, it doesn't, it says 'I'm a stupid whore for getting a tattoo I can't read.'" They then cut to a shot of some woman in the audience with a long line of kanji tattoed down her arm who didn't find it funny at all, which made it all the more funny to me. I can see both sides of the arguement, as mentioned before, you often see random English words used for decoration on clothes and such in Japan, and nobody seems to care about it, but it would be funny to see somebody walking around in a T-shirt that said "I'm a dumbass!" or something on it. Putting it on them permanently would be carrying it too far in my book though, unless they really deserved it.

[Lloromannic]

you often see random English words used for decoration on clothes and such in Japan, and nobody seems to care about it, but it would be funny to see somebody walking around in a T-shirt that said "I'm a dumbass!"
If you want too see that then go to engrish.com (www.engrish.com)
I made a selection for you
one (http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=sportyandeasy.jpg&category=Clothing&date=2004-03-10)
two (http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=imcock.jpg&category=Clothing&date=2003-04-08)
three (http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=urine-tshirt.jpg&category=Clothing&date=2002-06-30)

[crabbi]

If you want too see that then go to engrish.com (http://www.engrish.com)
I made a selection for you
one (http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=sportyandeasy.jpg&category=Clothing&date=2004-03-10)
two (http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=imcock.jpg&category=Clothing&date=2003-04-08)
three (http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=urine-tshirt.jpg&category=Clothing&date=2002-06-30)
What an amazing site!!! Thanks Lloromannic!!!

cheers

crabbi

[Kaede]

hmm i'm also gonna tattoo my name, but on my shinai...

errr anyone who speaks japanese: is eedorian the best translation for Adrian ?I see that you are from Germany. I then guess that you wouldn't really pronounce your name as Crabbi-san suggested...am I right if I think you pronounce it with a long "Ah"-sound in the beginning?

If you do I would suggest: ア－デリアン (aa-de-ri-a-n)

Kaede auf Schweden :)