• Dojan@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    195
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is my favourite. 痔 means haemorrhoid. Presumably it was meant to say 侍, samurai.

  • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    187
    ·
    1 year ago

    I mean we can probably all visualize the person who had that tattoo and “foreign pervert” probably fits them perfectly.

    • Kythtrid@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      1 year ago

      And honestly a pretty hillarious phrase to tattoo when some white foreigner rolls up asking for a “Lover of Asian Beauty” tattoo.

  • Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    85
    ·
    1 year ago

    Where I live, we get a number of used vehicles imported from Japan, and for a while it was trendy to have English slogans on vehicles.

    They frequently made little sense, I imagine our ones look the same to them.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    73
    ·
    1 year ago

    Wasn’t a tattoo, but a motorcycle decal. This dude had a Kawasaki crotch rocket with five kanji characters on it. Posted it to a forum, and this weeb says “lol where’d you get that?” dude answers all defensively “From the mall, why?” Weeb says “It says pig bird pig lizard dog.” “No dude, it says N-I-N-J-A.” He thought kanji characters translated directly to the latin alphabet.

    • Resistentialism@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Damn, I kinda wanna play my English ninja wkth the Japanese word for ninja. But I do not want to end up like that.

    • FlihpFlorp@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Wait did the characters look like the letters for ninja or was it the (I’m assuming Japanese) equivalent of the letter n then I and so on

      • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        I don’t precisely remember, I’m recalling a forum post I read at least a decade ago, but I do recall that he had at least tried to literally translate the letters “NINJA” to Asian text beyond just picking some McDojo font. I don’t know if he had attempted to find kanji characters that looked relatively like latin letters or if someone convinced him that “This one means N” or something.

  • fne8w2ah@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    72
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Not really related, but a couple of years ago in my home country, a Western bloke was actually pictured on the internet wearing a shirt that said something like “白人很笨” (white people are stupid).

    • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      82
      ·
      1 year ago

      Some of us buy those ironically though. I had a shirt that said (and I unfortunately cannot put it in kana/Kanji atm) something very close to, in full kana and kanji: “I am a stupid American. I’ll buy anything.”

      I knee fully what it meant because the sentence was pretty easy, but I still wanted to travel to Japan wearing it.

    • Etterra@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well I mean it’s not wrong. Everybody’s stupid, it’s just a matter of quantity and context.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    63
    ·
    1 year ago

    There’s a great website documenting this. I’m surprised no one has linked to it.

    https://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/

    Example:

    Ariana Grande’s new tattoo, 七輪.

    She wanted it to promote and celebrate her latest single, 7 Rings.

    Instead it is referencing to a type of Japanese charcoal cooking grill.

  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    45
    ·
    1 year ago

    I have a friend that has Thai writing tattooed on his leg that translates to “I love chicken soup.”

    I think when he was drunk he went into a tattoo parlor thinking it was a restaurant.

  • NewAgeOldPerson@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    42
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’ve seen a few Sanskrit ones. Nothing drastic in real life, thankfully. I find the Chinese ones much more hilarious.

    Had a friend in college legit get ancient Chinese calligraphy. Absolutely beautiful. But my international center buddy told me separately it just meant window. It was supposed to be this heavenly view or some such thing. No. It was window.

    • aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      49
      ·
      1 year ago

      I will likely never get a tattoo. But I know there are lots of reasons to get tattoos, and it seems to me that the vast majority of people not only don’t regret but feel good about the tattoos they get. So I dunno, sleep on it, but go ahead and get a tattoo if you really want.

      • sunblocks@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        23
        ·
        1 year ago

        It’s so weird, for over 30 years it didn’t make sense to me, until all of a sudden I knew what I wanted and it just clicked? One thigh and calf piece later and I’m addicted. I get nothing but compliments during shorts season and the Leo in me lives for that shit.

        • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          12
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah tattoos are the shit! They make these meat bags we’re all trapped in more bearable. My tattoos are my favorite part about me

          • SkyeStarfall
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            1 year ago

            It does feel nice to embrace your body, and like, make it more “your own”. It’s kinda like expressing your autonomy over it.

        • CoderKat@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          ·
          1 year ago

          Same, first 20 years of my life I disliked the idea of tattoos and thought I’d never, ever get any. Turns out all that was just society pushing puritan ideas on me and I just had to get over that.

          • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Yep. My tattoos have no meanings to anyone but myself, and there’s no way that my 6’3" 220lb white ass would ever be confused for a Japanese person. I don’t need to “say” a damn thing. They can tell I’m ガイジン just by looking at me.

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              1 year ago

              I still remember my first trip to Asia and being noticed everywhere. Was telling a friend of mine later “oh that must be how minorities and attractive women feel all the time but still kinda better”. There is just no way to blend in if you are a white-arab dude in a city that is +99% a specific east Asian ethnic group. I tried dressing like a local, I put on my blank New Yorker facial expression, didn’t speak much, but nothing worked. Everyone was doing doubletakes and kids/old people were openly looking.

        • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          I’m almost tempted to get full body art of the Jojo rumble kana to see if one of the guards starts up, “oh? You’re approaching me? You’re coming right to my admittance stand?”

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      You do you. I have none myself and am unlikely to ever get one. But I’m pro-choice on it. For adults. Kids should stick with ruining their hair, because it’s a non-permanent way to experience regret. Could probably lead to better choices about tattoos later. Piercings, too.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        I have never gotten a tat because I am too afraid of regrets. I admire a good ink job and whenever I see someone with a fresh one I will talk to them about it. But like you it isn’t a thing I would want.

        Also agree about hair and clothes. Unless it is totally inappropriate for weather or the situation (yes kids you are dressing up for the wedding we were invited to) I let my kids work it out for themselves. My parents were strict about clothing and I won’t put my children through that.

    • snippyfulcrum@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      I think this is very much an ‘each to their own’ thing.

      I have a Loth Cat from Star Wars on my arm I got at Star Wars Celebration 2019 and so I get warm fuzziness and memories of that time when I see it there. It was a fun experience I got to have with my family… and a very cute little critter too.

      Admittedly I’ve been asked many times if it was a Pokémon LOL

    • billy_bollocks@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Lol all of the mid 20’s to mid 30’s hipster chicks with arm sleeves are down voting you.

      I have a couple of tats I got with my squad in Iraq when I was in the Army. Explaining those tats to those same younger hipster gals never seems to go over well.

  • happilybitchycowboy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    1 year ago

    Why not? I got Vete a la Mierda tattooed on my arm when I was young and still learning Spanish. Occasionally, I’ve had the great opportunity to pull my sleeve up.

  • Jikal@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    1 year ago

    I saw a pic that supposedly said “egg fried rice”. I wouldn’t even be mad

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    A friend of mine wanted a tattoo in french, she speaks it but not fluently, I found a quote for her that she loved, she transcribed it to paper to bring it to the tattoo artist… I think she transcribed it from memory because she made a mistake in the text and I never had the heart to tell her (small word missing or something like that)… And it’s a very long quote in a straight line on her vertebral column, so it’s not easy to hide if she wears something more revealing…

  • floofloof@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    When I was a kid I remember a clothing store getting in trouble because it was selling underpants with an artistic Arabic lettering design. They hadn’t checked what it said, but it turned out to say “There is no god but God and Mohammed is his prophet.” Having this on underpants didn’t please anyone.