Want to waste some money? Get a Chinese tattoo
I heard this story about poorly written tattoos on NPR.
This is a huge pet peeve of mine. There really isn’t any extra meaning just because you write in foreign pictograms. I can’t think of too many other stupid purchases than tattoos that are incorrect. I don’t have a tattoo and I will probably never get one since there’s nothing I want permanently on my body except all my original body parts, less maybe those wisdom teeth.
If you wanted Chinese or Japanese characters you should probably do some research and see a tattooist whose native language is one of these languages. But keep in mind, what you think is a damn fine translation in English doesn’t mean much in that language. For instance in Latin, ‘ignis caput’ means ‘fire’ ‘a head’ in English, but it doesn’t really mean the idom ‘Fire ahead’. But you could get that tattoo and I’m sure someone out there would think you’re depth of Latin knowledge is incredibly profound and cool.
FWIW, I can recommend a tattooist in LA. She’s awesome, but she probably wouldn’t do a Chinese character tattoo. I’ve seen lots of examples of her work. Erika Stanley is her name, but she isn’t taking new clients right now. Check her out.
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