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Getting a tattoo design written in a language you don't understand is rarely a good idea. Even tattoos in people’s native tongues are often hilariously misspelled or misinterpreted.
Tattoos written in Hanzi and Kanji (the Chinese and Japanese character sets) became popular in the West in the late 1980s, although there was a niche among sailors who visited the Far East for many years prior. Western tattoo artists usually copy a character from a template, which is often unreliable and can easily lead to context errors if a direct translation is attempted. For example 2001, Britney Spears got a Chinese tattoo inked on her bikini line. She believed that the tattoo meant 'mysterious,' but later on, it was found that this tattoo means 'strange.' Combining the characters to form a phrase or idiom can lead to even worse language jokes, as meanings can change completely, and you end up with a tattoo fail like "demon bird mothballs" forever inked on your skin.
So you have to ask yourself, then – why do people still choose these tattoo ideas? After all, you are relying on others to get the meaning right, and it can come across as weird or even offensive to Chinese or Japanese people who feel that you might be trivializing or insulting their ancient cultures with your atrociously bad translations. So the best advice is – don't. Unless you have done scrupulous research, maybe even taken time to learn Japanese or Chinese, and are fully aware and accepting of the cultural connotations!
Scroll down to see some funny words and cringeworthy examples of people getting it completely wrong for yourself, and let us know your thoughts on these epic translation fails in the comments!
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#1
Late to party, saw a Canadian guy and asked him what he had asked the tattoo artist ”I asked him for some bad words, something really bad”. It’s said “economic recession”
Saulo Frota 6 years ago
I met a tattoo artist that once tattooed a Hell's Angel that had "Owner's Manual" in japanese on his arm. He said those japanese letters were written under the Harley Davidson's logo of his bike's owner's manual, and just thought it meant Harley Davidson in japanese.
Sophia Cai 5 years ago
It's like that tumblr post that says "quick reblog this with pictures of skeletons saying bad words" and the picture just has a skeleton with "tax evasion" in comic sans
RELATED:
#2
40+ year old bald white guy with Chinese characters that translated as “I’m a cute little princess” on the length of his forearm. Had a good laugh the rest of that day.
Donna Leske 6 years ago
and I bet you're not afraid to wear pink. More power to ya!
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glowworm2 6 years ago
That is an awesome tattoo. Own being a cute little princess, middle aged bald guy!
Anna Repp 6 years ago
Since when 40 is middle-aged??? I beg to disagree!!
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Andrea Delden 6 years ago
My son-in-law Is Chinese, but came to Canada as a young child. He can only speak a little and can’t read at all. My daughter’s work was having a supper one night and one guy came a little late, with his t-shirt sleeve rolled up, proudly showing his new tattoo. My s-i-l said , rather loudly so the whole restaurant could hear, “Hey, why do you have “Ginger Beef” written on your shoulder?” Hilarity ensued!
Gehtdich Nixan 6 years ago (edited)
maybe it was on purpose and that's what he wanted the tattoo to say ;)
ADDYSON DAVIES 6 years ago
someone i know said one of his Mandarin fluent friends saw a guys tattoo that said chicken noodle soup and the guy did not believe them
Bluebird11 6 years ago
Maybe he's a secret cross-dresser & deep down sees himself that way. Probably not, but you never know.
#3
My buddy has "illiterate foreigner" in traditional Chinese characters. It's dope
elfin 6 years ago
We're all illiterate if you expect us to be fluent in every language in the world.
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Gwyn Plaine 6 years ago
One of the Chinese exchange students at my Uni had "Watery waste" tattooed just under his belly button. Another I know of but didn't see was an Asian guy who had "I am a marsheeen" with a badly drawn Marvin the Martian. So it works both ways I reckon.
Michelle Muirhead 6 years ago
Ha, ha sucked in! Better to do your research. Better still don’t get tattoos in the first place if you have no idea.
Sophia Cai 5 years ago
Back in china i saw a guy with "i dont know what this says" on his arm. probably pretty useful
#4
I saw this guy with Japanese characters that translated to “Beep Beep Lettuce”
glowworm2 6 years ago
Mine too. "Beep Beep Lettuce" sounds hysterical to me.
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Luna Lovegood 6 years ago
A kid at my school had a catch phrase last year. It was "beep beep lettuce". Great kid :).
#5
I was TDY in Japan for 90 days, and I didn't know very much Japanese at all, but the wife of a guy I worked with was fluent, and at a small command function she pointed out this complete asshat of a guy at the detachment I was with whose back tat read "child changing station". He told everyone it was something like "strength, loyalty, determination".
earringnut 6 years ago
Have you ever tried changing a baby at one of those stations? It might as well mean strength, loyalty, determination. Lol.
Jonahs Mrs 6 years ago
I was just thinking of all the times I've changed my babies nappies at changing stations and thinking "actually...it's not wrong"😀x
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Amaranthim Talon 6 years ago
Thank you- I have no idea - guess we will never know
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Val Izhakevich 6 years ago
Well, the three words above definitely require one to have the three ones below.
Bluebird11 6 years ago
Well, you'd have to possess those qualities to approach a diaper-changing table.
#6
My wife is Chinese and the best one she has personally seen was "fat dumb American" on a guys leg.
#7
I knew a girl at university who had some Chinese characters down her arm. Came in one hot summer day and I finally saw the whole thing. It said; Emergency exit. Do not block.
Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch 6 years ago
I hope it wasn't a 'Tramp Stamp' located just above her butt
Andrew Huang 6 years ago
It would have been more meaningful if it was located somewhere below her waist
Jane Alexander 6 years ago
I'd like to know what the tattooed person thought they were getting.
#8
Wanted a tattoo in Chinese that said "I am a vegetarian," got a tattoo that said "I am made of vegetables."
Ashley Galyen 6 years ago
English has the quirk where you can 'I am X' and it's something about you versus a state you are in depending on the context. It's like the difference between 'I am bored' and 'I am boring'. Probably should have said 'I practice vegetarianism' instead.
Nevi Løvfelt 6 years ago
Hahaha. Some of the Asian tattoo artists write bad things like stupid foreigner etc. Not so funny.
#9
I probably shouldn’t be saying this as the person who had this done to them is my best friend but...sh!t...here we go again... My best friend who we’ll call Sarah got a tattoo when she was 16 (where I live, you’re supposed to be 18) her dad passed away about 3 years ago and she wanted to get a tattoo on her wrist to remember him...instead of getting his name which would’ve been easier...she decided she wanted to get “dad” in Japanese...it’s been 2 years since then and I still haven’t told her that it says “turtle” I know that she’ll hate herself if she finds out and to be 100% honest...I kinda like it...I was actually thinking of getting it on my wrist too...my dad passed away when I was only 11 so she’d think I got a tattoo saying dad as well but I’d actually just be getting a pretty hilarious tattoo that I kinda love... I just want to add...if I suddenly go missing...blame it on my best friend
Dream Wolf 6 years ago
Well turtles can be good luck, in Chinese culture they can represent a long prosperous life. So it could be a blessing in disguise? A cute blessing from her dad.
Random Panda 6 years ago
I wonder if the person who tattooed her knew her intentions and purposefully messed it up. That would be very mean given the circumstances.
Amaranthim Talon 6 years ago
I really like this story ♥ - Yes your friend got the "wrong" tattoo- but it could have been so much worse! Plus, turtles being long lived could almost be stretched into immortality symbol- therefore, her father lives on. See? Fixed it ;)
Geoffrey Holland 6 years ago
Maybe her dad really was a turtle. Or the least he liked turtles the candy.
#10
Buddy of mine got a tattoo with his friends. He wanted it to say something like "honor" or "loyalty" or some dumb s**t, but it actually says "free eggroll with combo purchase"
Master Markus 6 years ago
I have some doubts considering that that would be more than the one character used for something like "honor" or "loyalty" in whatever language you're talking about...
Jacob/Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 6 years ago
Yea you don't see Chinese people with English words tattooed on them.
Bluebird11 6 years ago
I can see myself requesting the eggroll text, purely for the random absurdity.
European other 6 years ago
So if they don't like you, it's something off a menu that you have tattooed on you !
#11
I once saw this middle aged dude wearing "金魚佬" on his shoulder (the rough literary translation is "Goldfish Man"), which in cantonese means a sleazy older man who creeps on younger girls/children. Basically a pedo. Wonder under what circumstances he got that inked...
euterpe signs 5 years ago (edited)
11 months late, but here’s your answer... In 60s Hong Kong, child predators would lure kids away by promising to take them to ‘watch the goldfish’— of course, once they were away from the crowds, they would commit sex acts on the children.
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#12
I have 'Monkey' on my wrist because that's my Chinese zodiac. I know it's accurate because a Chinese guy asked me if I knew what it meant, and I'm sure he thought I would say 'faith' or 'love' or something, so when I said 'monkey' he looked so relieved. His friend was like 'you have GOT to stop doing that!'
Lili 6 years ago
You sure you got it right? Cuz in Chinese the word they use for the animals in general are not the word they use for Zodiac signs.
John Laurens/Gay Turtle 6 years ago
I think that may be true in traditional chinese, but not simplified. For example, 老虎 is both the tiger zodiac and the animal tiger.
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Mala Qiu 6 years ago
I have the name of a Taiwanese rock star tattooed on my ankle, 伍佰 (Wu Bai). That means "500" and is his nickname that he's had since he was a child, everyone calls him that. Some Taiwanese gal chased me down at the MRT station in Taipei once to tell me that I had "money" tattooed on my leg and did I know that? I just looked at her and said, in Chinese, "Er, no, it's the rock star." Couldn't believe she had no clue who he was, since Wu Bai & China Blue are immensely popular in Taiwan.
#13
my friend got "translator server error" tattooed on his arm. needless to say he wasn't very happy after i told him
Human #1,232,867 6 years ago
in China, "404 translation error" is a common name for shops who copy and paste Google translate result
#14
My boyfriend got tattooed before we met and he meant to get warrior(士) tattooed on him, but the lines are wrong so it really means dirt (土). The bottom line is supposed to be shorter than the top line. His nickname in my family is now doro-chan which is basically a cute way of saying dirt boy.
Dynein 6 years ago
Shouldn't that be easy to fix, though? By just lengthening the upper line...?
Charlene Saulnier 6 years ago
And lose the fun nickname of “dirt boy”?? 😂
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Kiss Army 6 years ago
Every time I see/hear Nudge nudge, I think of the Monty Python sketch "Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, you know what I mean, say no more..."
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OhForSmegSake 6 years ago
Why do I find that cute? Like a little dirty boy whose spent the day playing warrior with his friends
Dias Ronas 6 years ago
To be fair, the symbol is also earth, which can have some deeper meaning than just dirt. lol
Ian MacFarlane 6 years ago
My dictionary says the one with the short bottom line (shi) means scholar or gentleman. Needs an additional character in front to modify the meaning.
#15
I can read Chinese and I met a guy who wanted to get a tattoo that said "Hope" so i guess they looked it up in the dictionary and tattooed the first 2 characters after "hope" which were "名子“ which says "noun"
Ian MacFarlane 6 years ago
Ming zi (名子) means given name, although it can be used as full name in such sentences as "My name is John Smith."
Yosafat Basuseno 6 years ago
example: "I have some hope." does that "hope" still function as a verb? yeah, right...
Load More Replies... #16
This guy i saw had "circumcised Squirrel" on his arm in chinese
Ryo Bakura 6 years ago
Don't worry! We won't let it happen to you, Jacob/Becca Gizmo!
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Diane Macchiavelli 2 years ago
Very carefully. With a teeny tiny rabbi version of a scalpel. After you’ve given the squirrel some peanut flavored weed to eat.
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#17
Lemon water pork dumplings along the spine
#18
He thought it said “Love my grandson”. It translated to something like “I love fat boys”. I think it was a google translate failure of epic proportions
#19
Man flexed his tattoo to me in a supermarket claiming it said 'wisdom'. It meant 'meat'.
#20
I didn’t see it, but I went with a friend to get a piercing, and I heard a guy say, I don’t like the way that looks, can you change this line and make the ends do this. The tattoo artist said, “Yea, but that changes the word, you might be going from brave to gay woman for all I know. You can’t change kanji symbols and still have it mean the same thing.”
Dream Wolf 6 years ago
I know. The amount of times I've lost marks for this during a test. One wrong stroke...and nah. points deducted
D. Pitbull 6 years ago
Verrry irritating... "I want this tattoo in a language I don't read, understand or will be TRYING to understand... so why can't you just change it around and have it mean what **I** want it to mean?" - You can't change Kanji/Chinese ... geezus, if you have a drippy pen you're in a bit of trouble.
#21
I dont speak Chinese but back in college I knew a guy who was one of those douchey guys who likes to brag about how cultured they are and stuff when really they're just an a**hole. He came back from China with some characters tattooed on him. My friend next to me (who had real bad social anxiety so would never speak in public to non-friends normally) burst out laughing. Douche-guy got kinda annoyed and said "It says Strength, Wisdom, Passion" or some other weird bs like that. My friend then reached into his bag, pulled out his phone, opened up one of those AR translators, pointed it at the guy's tattoo, and through the magic of AR, revealed it actually said "chicken with noodles". My friend then said that one of his mates in China told him that a lot of Asian tattooists will often deliberately f**k up tattoos and stuff because they get really annoyed at those douchey people coming over asking for random words to be tattooed onto them.
Dream Wolf 6 years ago
I kind of don't blame them. I mean it's strange to go in and ask for something that you won't understand (you're just opening yourself up for messing around) at least have someone who fluent in the language write the proper thing out on a sheet of paper?
Orillion 6 years ago
If you go to a tattoo artist IN CHINA you kind of expect they can speak chinese. Furthermore, you are paying them for their work. Just tattooing a random word is a terrible professional attitude.
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Mimis Nachbarin 6 years ago
They're not annoyed to take their money though... Plus: I really wonder what is supposed to be more "resepectfull" in an Asian tattoo studio? To ask for Shakespeare lines?
Sue Prewitt 6 years ago
What a s****y thing to do. They like what it (supposedly) says and they think Chinese is beautiful. How is that "douchey"? Hopefully they aren't d***s like that.
#22
so this one wrestler/boxer/fighter whatever nicknamed himself the wind of pain and decided to get a Chinese tattoo based on that, so instead of using something bad ass like 痛苦之风（wind of pain)but he ended up with 痛风 which means metabolic arthritis. Yeah good luck with that
#23
I have my Chinese zodiac in Chinese letters on my arm. I worked with a guy who was from China and spoke almost no English. When he saw it his eyes lit up, pointed at my arm and said "hahaha cock!". I'm the year of the rooster...
Lili 6 years ago (edited)
You sure you got it right? Cuz in Chinese the word they use for chicken/rooster in general are not the word they use for Zodiac sign. And the word chicken is actually a slang for p***s.
John Laurens/Gay Turtle 6 years ago
I'm the year of the rooster as well. My friend, who speaks zero chinese, loves to remind me that im a "c**k"
Jill Pulcifer 6 years ago
Reminds me of my mother who had what she thought was the Chinese character for "Pisces" on her ankle as her one and only tattoo. What she actually had just said "fish", I didnt have the heart to tell her.
Mimis Nachbarin 6 years ago
Pisces just means fish(es). It's only latin. In many languages you do not have necessarily different names for Zodiac signs and the actual animal. I wonder if they have in Asia (why woulöd they?)... So this is not a fail, it is correct.
Load More Replies... #24
Not my story but a friend of mine. She had a classmate in college with a kanji tattoo, confused she asked her what it meant. “High princess” Turns out it actually said “pig princess”
#25
A friend of mine once told me he saw a guy with something like ‘I don’t speak this language’ tattooed on his arm.
#26
I once had a roommate placed with me in the apartment our company ran for us here in Japan. He was loud, obnoxious, and I generally didn't get on well with him. But, you try to get along, so we'd go to the izakaya up the street from time to time with other friends to drink and have a good time. The owners were this wonderful old Japanese couple who loved having all these weird gaijin come and entertain the locals. Anyway, somehow we get talking about tattoos and the roommate is showing his off. He then says that he got the kanji for "friendship" (友) and "peace" (和) tattooed on his back and lifts his shirt to show everyone. There's a bit of silence, broken by someone asking, "Who's Tomokazu?" What Roommate didn't know, of course, was that those two kanji in that order was a man's name. He reacted well, though, taking a beat and then announcing, "I'M TOMOKAZU!" which became a running joke while he was there.
Lenka Smetanová 6 years ago
still better thn a tatoo with a name of yor partner after three weeks of dating... He get quite cool nickname...
Aidyn06 6 years ago
My ex boyfriend did a stick and poke of my name after a month. then he dumped me
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#27
A guy I saw in the streets had the hiragana "Unko" tatooed on his shoulder. "Unko" meaning a turd in japanese...
#28
"Little potato". He thought it said "respect".
Dream Wolf 6 years ago
That ones actually cute. If I weren't so freaked out about needles I'd get it
Monday 6 years ago
hopefully with a picture of a cute little potato to go along with it
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#29
My friend got a tattoo that said "veni vidi vici" in chinese, well so he thought. The tattoo acutally said "three small dishes"
Master Markus 6 years ago
Why would you get something Latin in Chinese? What would one even expect!? You'd have to translate it to write it anyway!
#30
On a womans shoulder as a tribute to her fallen brother, in Japanese but translate too "brother sex always"
Ryo Bakura 6 years ago
"Oh I come from Alabama with a tattoo on my shoulder!" I know it doesn't fit. Shut up.
#31
Girl at a festival had got a tattoo down the side of her ribs while traveling in Thailand. A Chinese tattoo. In Thailand. Why? She brought it up and showed people. Said it meant “live for adventure” or some typical lofty bollocks. Chinese girl we were with starts pissing herself laughing. Girl was like “what’s so funny?” It said “picnic table”
neighbor.no13 6 years ago
The pronunciation of 'adventure' in English and 'picnic table 野餐桌' in Chinese is very similar.
#32
I was scrolling through the web at some tattoos for fun,a person said they got a tattoo that said "Strength and courage" in japanese. It actually said "Little animal, big mistake." Great quote imo,but I dont think they thought so after they got it permanently marked on their skin.
#33
My mom sent me a pic of her coworkers new Mandarin tattoo so I could translate it. It was supposed to say something about jesus or religion but it said “green” lol
#34
My dad once had a student in his freshman music theory class who came in bragging to her friends about her new tattoo that supposedly said "princess" in Chinese. Right before class started, as the talk was dying down, a Chinese exchange student leaned over to her and said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "It's actually more like 'concubine.'" My dad said he couldn't keep a straight face the entire class.
#35
Gets a tattoo in google translate Japanese thinking it says “fear no one” but it really means “I fear everyone”
#36
Ariane Grande tattooed the words “Barbecue Grill” on her hand.
#37
My friend thought he had "Warrior" on his arm, but it turned out to be "Calendar"
#38
I was hanging out with some friends at a pub while they were smoking, and a girl from another group was talking about how much she loved "asiany word tattoos" and she finally got her own. She thought that it said "bad b***h" but I'm pretty sure it translated to "rude prostitute" in Mandarin.
#39
Worked in Japan for a few years, and shortly after moving back to the US, I spotted a fellow working in a comics shop with a tattoo of a kanji. I recognized it right away, but I asked him what it meant just in case I was horribly wrong. He said it was Chinese, that there wasn’t a direct English translation, and it was about inner strength and determination. My dude, 苺 means “strawberry.”
#40
Finally, a post meant for me. I was determined to get a tattoo. Not sure what I wanted at 19 years old so we went in as a group and I decided on Chinese letters. I chose two different ones that are supposed to read "free" "spirit". Turns out the spirit translates as "the essence of something" and so the tattoo roughly says "free semen". I found out when a female Chinese co-worker saw it and turned red with embarrassment.
#41
I had a student that transferred from Japan in high school who I was good friends with, a kid came in with a phrase in English that said “come to me if you wish to free your mind” Then supposedly the same phrase in Japanese, she noticed and whispered the phrase to me which was “Hot bananas are peace”
#42
"Storm drain" on a guy who wanted "The way of water" like Bruce Lee always talked about.
#43
I knew a guy who thought he was getting Honor while in the Navy. He was preparing to transfer out to Japan and wanted something to draw Japanese females' attention. Turns out that one of the guys at the shop had a 17 year old sister he had played for sex, so they gave him the symbol for Yaoi. Edit for those not in the know: Yaoi means gay.
earringnut 6 years ago
Can we just acknowledge that the girl was only 17. What a goldfish man.
Finn Fickle 6 years ago
Not really believing. Yaoi - やおい - is short for "yamanashi ochinashi iminashi" (no climax, no point, no meaning). It's homoerotic "plot what plot" fiction. It isn't a symbol and it doesn't mean gay - 同性愛者 (doseiai-sha) is gay.
Louise B 6 years ago
No climax, no point, no meaning...That's probably going to be my obituary
Load More Replies... #44
Please dont use google translate to translate tattoos, i once saw “i once am a katana”
#45
A friend of mine had a tatt shop. He put up a flash page with kanji for stuff like "a**hole", "bastard", etc. If anyone asked the meaning, he would honestly tell them. However he would regularly get people come in, see the character, think it "looked cool" and get it inked on without ever bothering to ask. He thought that was hilarious.
Monday 6 years ago
I like this. Allows stupid tourist to be stupid tourist without being mean spirited about it.
Pretty Pangolin 6 years ago
Agree, if they do their due diligence then there's no problem.
Load More Replies... #46
I met a girl who showed me her tattoo saying it said "love". Sadly it said "weird". Similar Kanji, so well... (love:愛 or 恋, weird :変)
chi-wei shen 6 years ago
Google told me '変態' means 'kinky' which in my opinion is much better than 'weird'.
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neighbor.no13 6 years ago
She can tell everyone it's a Chinese word. In Chinese 変 mean 'change'. Is better than weird.
#47
Saw a girl with 魚 tattooed on her shoulder who swore up and down it meant poison... It means fish
Mike 6 years ago
I guess she got what she wanted. Just had to go through an extra language first.
Load More Replies... Dream Wolf 6 years ago
“毒” and "魚“ kind of maybe look alike from way off in the distance? I don't know, you could turn it into a good luck thing
#48
Not sure if it’s already mentioned. I’ve seen a woman has the character “雞” tattooed on her arm. It’s translated to chicken, literally. But in Cantonese we often refer to prostitutes as “chicken”...
MammaG 6 years ago
No, it's wonderful. If you aren't Chinese and cannot read it, you have no business getting a Chinese tattoo.
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John Laurens/Gay Turtle 6 years ago
and it's even worse that it was a woman who had that tattoo. Women prostitutes are referred to as "chicken", and male prostitutes are referred to as "ducks"
#49
Not someone I know, but my uncle told me a story about a guy that was a crystal palace fan who thought he was getting "eagles for life" tattooed on him, but the translation in Chinese was more literal and translated to "I give birth to eagles"
D. Pitbull 6 years ago
So... yeah... he'd... literally have eagles for life if he could... spawn them...
Ryo Bakura 6 years ago
The worst part of this story is the guy admitted he was a Crystal Palace fan.
#50
“変態豚” (hentai buta) “pervert pig” I s**t you not; he told people it meant “lover of Asian beauty” He didn’t believe me when I told him what it meant so I bet him $20 that the people at the Asian imports shop across the street from the cafe we were at would tell him the same thing. He came back out of the shop a minute later, yelled “f**k you!”, flipped me off, and left. Didn’t come back for his coffee and still owes me that twenty.
#51
I don’t read Japanese but I had a Japanese roommate in college. A guy thought his tattoo said warrior. It said grandmother. I like to think it was a hidden tribute to a badass grandmother.
#52
私はチンポを持っている女性が好きです It means I like women who have cock (Somebody has a really bad friend)
chi-wei shen 6 years ago
Maybe this was done on purpose by someone who loves transsexual women.
#53
He wanted the Chinese character for mother, he pronounced it wrong so the tattoo artist wrote horse instead
Nagawa (Cofa) Kishiki 6 years ago
Fortunately, it is not hard to fix in Chinese. 馬 vs 媽. I'm not telling which.
Master Markus 6 years ago
I mean, it's easy to guess since you told us it would be an easy fix and not something you'd have to remove or cover up.
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Dream Wolf 6 years ago
Oh dear! This just shows how complicated and important pronunciation is (sometimes the same word has more than one pronunciation). Again it might be better to find exactly what you want, write it out and then show it
#54
Not Chinese or Japanese, but Punjabi. Many many many years ago I had been working and travelling around many countries across Asia and since I was in Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand at the time I took a few days off to unwind. Over the next 3 days I regularly saw this Danish girl at some of the beach bars. She had a large tattoo that looked fairly new going down the right side of her back and torso. The tattoo was a phrase in Punjabi rather than the typical Asian scripts of Sanskrit, Chinese, or Japanese. You don't see a lot of those so it really stuck out. I am originally from this area in India. I finally mustered up enough courage to speak to her and asked her what the tattoo said. According to her it was an old hippie Sanskrit proverb about bringing peace and love to the world. She had gotten this while travelling across India. She seemed so happy relaying her Indian travel stories, the mysticism, and why she finally got her very first tattoo. I felt so bad for her knowing what it really said. The characters were written in such a large style I couldn't see how she could maybe convert it into something else. The impression I got from her was she had left India earlier than anticipated so I asked about this. Turns out the last few weeks she had been hassled by quite a lot of guys. Even the tattoo artist was gropey and seemed angry when she kept turning his advances down over multiple visits, simply wanting the tattoo to be finished. I finally told her what the tattoo said and she was mortified. Not believing me at first I video-chatted a female cousin in India telling her only to translate a tattoo without saying why whereby she confirmed what I had said. The girl couldn't stop crying. She always wore something over her bikini after that. The tattoo actually read "This bi**h is a slut. Use her and abuse her". I have no idea what happened to her afterwards as I had to get back to work, but I'm presuming she had to somehow get the tattoo removed which going by the size would have been very expensive and painful. Poor girl.
Random Panda 6 years ago (edited)
Wow, what an a*****e that tattoo artist was. I hope karma bites him in the a*s.
Dream Wolf 6 years ago
Yeah no, this is one that makes me really really angry. There's messing with tourists and then theres taking advantage of them.
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María Hermida 6 years ago
I hope people will learn not to get tatoos in languages or scripts they don't understand, unless they REALLY trust the tatoos artist
European other 6 years ago
It's a shame but probably should have checked before going ahead with a big noticeable tattoo
#55
I knew a girl who had a two character tattoo in Chinese that she thought meant "peace and harmony". Turns out it actually means "left foot".
#56
The common word for "and" gets mistaken a lot of "peace", which is two words, "and" being the first of them("wo" vs. "wo ping" in Cantonese). So there are a lot of people who just have the word "and" tatooed on them and I think that's hilarious.
Mosheh Wolf 6 years ago
That song is in Korean, Dude. You can tattoo it on your arm, though: 오빤 강남스타일
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#57
I’ve seen “public restroom” in chinese
#58
"冷奴" each characteristic means 冷=cool and 奴=guy but when they are together, it means "cool tofu"
#59
I was on the subway in NYC and there was a guy who clearly lifted a lot. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt and on his jacked arms in chinese were the words “牛肉麵” or “Beef noodle soup” for everyone to see. Man looked ready to get the rest of his favorite restaurant’s menu tattooed on his body.
#60
"tiny chicken" my friend got that thinking it said his name
#61
Oooh I love this one! I was once having sex with a guy, about to go down on him when I noticed he had a Chinese tattoo on his inner hip, 凉。I stopped mid-sex, "What do you think your tattoo says." "Oh its supposed to mean cool, I know it isn't right though..." It actually meant cold to the touch, or disappointing. Fittingly, the sex was quite disappointing.
#62
Please never ever tattoo your name in Chinese if you don't know what you're doing. You can't just pick random characters that sound similar and call it a name, there's special ways to do it. I've met MULTIPLE people who let someone tell them that their Chinese name was 笨蛋 (bendan) as a joke... Congratulations now you have "idiot" written permanently on your upper arm Brendan, maybe your next tattoo should be "gullible" in Latin...
D. Pitbull 6 years ago
Yeeah... even as an Asian... I'm careful... got the tat of my Chinese name with a Feng Huang... managed to actually find the characters (which yes, I know how to write my own darned Chinese Name) online, so I arranged them in a document in the right order, printed them out to accurate size ... gave them to the tattoo artist... stressed "Do NOT skip out on any strokes, dots, lines or whatnot... you can trace'em **exactly** as they are on the paper, same size 'n' all..." - Came out perfect. Gawd solid black hurts. I'm a wimp.
#63
Not me but my ex was from China and told me someone's once said, "Intentional DVD Rental."
#64
Chinese speaker here. In high school I worked at a CVS. A white woman showed up at the register with a very poorly drawn 力 tattoo, and I said “cool tattoo, means power”. She scoffed and replied to me like I was satan himself, and said “you obviously don’t understand Chinese “letters” the tattoo artist told me it means the strength to overcome anything, even breast cancer...” then she rolled her eyes at me and walked away.
#65
I saw somebody who probably doesnt understand japanese flexing with his japanese tattoo. It is translated to english, surprise surprise, a giant failure.
#66
"Kitchen" - confused the kanji, what he wanted Ihave no idea. "Fat man" - he wanted "big guy" (tough guy?) apparently. Ariana Grande's hand tattoo mix up was a huge deal in Japanese media for a while too.
#67
We used to play ultimate frisbee with a guy who got a kanji tattoo that he insisted meant 'fast' (because he runs so fast). When he left, a friend of mine was chuckling to herself. "It doesn't mean 'fast'," she said. "It means 'easy'."
#68
I worked at a bar and a really bogan woman came in and ordered a drink. When she turned around I saw she had 自転車 tattooed on her shoulder. That means bicycle in Japanese.
Geoffrey Holland 6 years ago
Yeah and calling a woman the town bike means she gets ridden a lot.
#69
机 on his fist. I haven't taken Chinese but in Japanese it means 'desk'.
Geoffrey Holland 6 years ago
Well I think the guy would prefer machine because at least it would be like a punching machine sort of deal.
Load More Replies... #70
a big muscley tough looking guy with “accommodation” written in big kanji down his bicep. Later I considered that maybe he was a property developer tho...
#71
Former colleague of mine had spirit tattooed on his arm in Chinese. Some years later during a trip to China he discovered that what it actually said was gas.
Dream Wolf 6 years ago
If he was going for the chinese character for Chi, it wouldn't be too wrong. "氣" means gas and its used to refer to Chi.
#72
Girl I went to high school with got " the kanji for freedom" . It said Street lamp.
Jacob/Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 6 years ago
Kinda like this..she can dance under the street lamp and stars
#73
I saw a guy who said he got a tattoo in Japanese that said be not defeated by rain (Ame ni mo makezu). A famous Japanese poem. What was written was random Chinese characters that I didn't understand at all. When I broke the news to him that that's just random Chinese characters he said that I clearly don't know Japanese. I wrote it out in Japanese for him, still didn't believe me. Then I pulled out my phone asked Google sensei the answer. I showed him the top result that was the exact same as what I wrote. He started crying.
#74
My wife is Japanese, she says she has seen 'middle school' on someone before.
Kaori 3 years ago
um,I found younger people, especially non-American western think using "j*p" is not offensive, but this word has been racial demagogy. "JPN" or "JP" is better when you call us in short.
Load More Replies... #75
A guy came up to my Mom and I and asked what character he had tattooed on his ankle. It was the word for fire in Chinese with an extra mark. When we told him there was a typo in the character, he said he knew it was fire but he added the extra line to make it look cooler.
#76
I saw one person with a tattoo in tradition Vietnamese that said, basically "People ride me in cars." I'm assuming he was trying to say something to the affect of "Life is a highway"
#77
A friend tattooed "kuso" (in romaji), he though it meant warrior... It means s**t
#78
Had 2 friends so this. One chose her tatt from a menu, with characters she thought looked nice - now she had "cheap but nice" down her spine. Another mate lost a bet and has "dim sim 3 for 5 dollar" on his forearm. Both tatts in Chinese characters.
#79
ive seen some funny ones online, but most recently i saw a dude with a tattoo that said "household" on his arm basically (家庭) ,talking about a family more in the sense of a unit rather than something with sentiment i was at a chinese takeaway in a western city's suburb with two friends who also understand mandarin and said loudly in mandarin "why does his arm's tattoo say household?" and the dude didn't flinch, which tells me he deffo doesn't understand chinese 家itself means family, but also can mean house. my guess is that he just looked up synonyms in a chinese dictionary without really looking at the proper meaning because he thought two characters together looked better than one lone one.
neighbor.no13 6 years ago
家 itself means 'home'. Not family. 家庭 is not just a unit. If he want a word means family and the place he live. 家庭 is better than a single word 家.
#80
"Japanese people are so dumb" Written in Japanese.
#81
I randomly saw a guy with a Korean neck tattoo at a grocery that translated to “beef.” He was coincidentally in that section of the store.
#82
A woman who told me her tattoo meant angel. It was actually hermet.
#83
I’m a tattoo artist 愚かなクソ観光客 (stupid friggin tourist) The woman said her friend told her it meant Live Long and Love Life I told her that. It mean stupid f**king tourist glad I knew
#84
I’m an expat living in Japan. Was hanging out with my younger brother back in the States and he wanted to show off his new tattoo: “Look sister, it says ‘sex’!” He got “gender” tattooed on his neck.
MammaG 6 years ago
Anyone who gets a tattoo they cannot read is a dumbass who deserves what they get.
Load More Replies... #85
My wife is of Chinese descent, and one day a coworker comes in with a new tattoo in Japanese Kanji. In Japanese that character meant something like "Serenity" or something, but in Chinese it meant "I'm slow." So, if you're getting a tattoo of either Kanji or Chinese characters, check the OTHER language as well.
Kimberly Young 6 years ago
If I wanted a tattoo in a foreign language and I had an acquaintance who knew the language, I'd definitely be asking for help on the translation.
#86
Saw someone tattooed death believing it means love.
#87
A girl had the word 'rooster' written on her face, which is 公鸡. One character on each cheek. Except 鸡 is also a Chinese slang for w**re.
#88
For me it was something someone claimed was "chinese writing" but barely resembled any Chinese characters. It just looked like some squiggles. They thought it was love 爱 but it definitely wasn't.
#89
"我是粪" Dude thought it meant "The s**t." (Actually means "I'm s**t") Thank god it was only a temporary tatoo but that day the people that understood chinese in my class had a great laugh.
Andrew Wildman 6 years ago
In American English, that is slang for ‘the best’ or ‘the most awesome’.
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What do you think ?
Hans 6 years ago
Frankly...how can you get something that is permanent and not check out what it is? I am simply unable to comprehend this, in the literate meaning of comprehend.
Daria B 6 years ago
That's the problem. Most of them DO check, but they think a quick Google Translate will be enough.
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Herb Eaversmells 6 years ago
Can we all at least agree its a pretty s****y things to do; to deliberately tatoo someone with the wrong words as a joke?
Marina 6 years ago
I think it's horrible. I can't believe how many photos this thread has, it's something tattoo artists often do apparently and I can't understand why... Wth
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Christine Blackburne-Kowal 6 years ago
I had a roommate in college who was of partial Chinese decent. Her sister got a tattoo that she thought said "Strong Independent Woman". When she showed it to her Chinese grandmother, she laughed and told her it said "House Wife"
Andres Tejeda 6 years ago
My cousin who is deeply homophobic, got a Chinese tattoo on his arm. We are Mexican and he was showing it off saying that it means honor, family, and faith or something to that degree. Well I brought my Chinese friend over who is from Xiamen, to translate his tattoo. I told about his views of gays and he with out skipping a beat told my cousin that his tattoo meant: I love young men. My cousin denied it and was livid but we convinced him that that's what it meant. To this day he keeps it covered.
The Cappy 6 years ago
The comments here are very interesting. Most of these seem to be examples of Chinese or Japanese tattoo artists deliberately inking something other than they agreed, and something they knew would one day upset the client. It's hard to imagine any motive other than malice to these "mistakes." To the extent people are recognizing this, they're largely blaming the victims. I'm not someone who thinks blaming the victim is inappropriate. Often victims did something unwise leading up to their injury. But... if Americans routinely f'd with Asians by deliberately putting the wrong thing on a tattoo, we'd be livid. Such double standards we have.
Renee Gauthier 6 years ago
Maybe they were rude. And the tattooists figured they wouldn't be back back the time they discovered it. There are much worse things in life. Buyer beware.
Load More Replies... Dave P 6 years ago
I mean I dont understand why you would get a tattoo without checking out what it really means first (I mean get a temporary tat done in the henna ink style to see if it looks good first, and get it checked out to make sure what it means), at the same time a lot of these sound like a*****e tattoo artists harming innocent (in case dangerously so) because they dont like foreigners getting tats in their language, which to me is disgusting and shows a lack of professionalism and human decency on the side of the tattoo artist
Miklós Nagy 6 years ago
Tattooing the name of your favorite dishes before you'r visiting an asian country should be a lifehack!
Jenica Thomas 6 years ago
Moral of the story... If you don't speak the language fluently yourself, do not tattoo it on your body!
Hans 6 years ago
Frankly...how can you get something that is permanent and not check out what it is? I am simply unable to comprehend this, in the literate meaning of comprehend.
Daria B 6 years ago
That's the problem. Most of them DO check, but they think a quick Google Translate will be enough.
Load More Replies... Herb Eaversmells 6 years ago
Can we all at least agree its a pretty s****y things to do; to deliberately tatoo someone with the wrong words as a joke?
Marina 6 years ago
I think it's horrible. I can't believe how many photos this thread has, it's something tattoo artists often do apparently and I can't understand why... Wth
Load More Replies... Christine Blackburne-Kowal 6 years ago
I had a roommate in college who was of partial Chinese decent. Her sister got a tattoo that she thought said "Strong Independent Woman". When she showed it to her Chinese grandmother, she laughed and told her it said "House Wife"
Andres Tejeda 6 years ago
My cousin who is deeply homophobic, got a Chinese tattoo on his arm. We are Mexican and he was showing it off saying that it means honor, family, and faith or something to that degree. Well I brought my Chinese friend over who is from Xiamen, to translate his tattoo. I told about his views of gays and he with out skipping a beat told my cousin that his tattoo meant: I love young men. My cousin denied it and was livid but we convinced him that that's what it meant. To this day he keeps it covered.
The Cappy 6 years ago
The comments here are very interesting. Most of these seem to be examples of Chinese or Japanese tattoo artists deliberately inking something other than they agreed, and something they knew would one day upset the client. It's hard to imagine any motive other than malice to these "mistakes." To the extent people are recognizing this, they're largely blaming the victims. I'm not someone who thinks blaming the victim is inappropriate. Often victims did something unwise leading up to their injury. But... if Americans routinely f'd with Asians by deliberately putting the wrong thing on a tattoo, we'd be livid. Such double standards we have.
Renee Gauthier 6 years ago
Maybe they were rude. And the tattooists figured they wouldn't be back back the time they discovered it. There are much worse things in life. Buyer beware.
Load More Replies... Dave P 6 years ago
I mean I dont understand why you would get a tattoo without checking out what it really means first (I mean get a temporary tat done in the henna ink style to see if it looks good first, and get it checked out to make sure what it means), at the same time a lot of these sound like a*****e tattoo artists harming innocent (in case dangerously so) because they dont like foreigners getting tats in their language, which to me is disgusting and shows a lack of professionalism and human decency on the side of the tattoo artist
Miklós Nagy 6 years ago
Tattooing the name of your favorite dishes before you'r visiting an asian country should be a lifehack!
Jenica Thomas 6 years ago
Moral of the story... If you don't speak the language fluently yourself, do not tattoo it on your body!
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