Sunday, August 15, 2010

from: Jamie D.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 1:43 PM
subject: My tattoo artist is talented but doesn't listen

So...I was told this was the symbol for 'chi' - a giggling oriental girl told me it means 'rice' (which I actually find hilarious.) Any other meaning????

n578467325_639900_4271

by itself alone means "rice".
from: Paul J.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 5:49 AM
subject: another Hanzi Smatter

Hi Tian,

Ah yes, another victim gets a tattoo when they were a drunk teenager almost 16 years ago -- has a feeling it doesn't mean what they think it does.

Of course it means "STRENGTH", right??

Thanks! Your blog is hilarious, without trying to be.

Dr. P

ps, I can't wait to hear what it really means.

IMAG0036

means "to foster / to bear", not "strength".
from: W.J. H.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 11:43 AM
subject: Please Translate Ex-Boyfriend's Tattoo

My ex seems to think that his tattoo means "Hell's Warrior". The fella isn't the brightest crayon in the box and I would honestly be very surprised if he managed to get an accurately translated kanji tattoo in rural Idaho. Care to clarify it's meaning?

l_54574af03c75496ea5187e31c7482888

Top two character 地獄 does mean "hell", however by itself alone does not mean "warrior".
from: Alex Y.
to: "tiangotlost@gmail.com"
date: Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 9:44 AM
subject: Friend's tattoo

Wondering if you could translate this. My friend thinks it says something like, "to learn as much as possible."

Thanks,

Alex

photo

means "empty, hollow, bare, deserted".
from: Jen W.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 10:28 PM
subject: To Fight is to Suffer?

My neighbor directed me to your site after I mentioned to her that my husband had a kanji tattoo.

He tells everyone that it is supposed to mean something along the lines of "to fight is to suffer", and then it later came out that he had gotten the tattoo for his ex-fiancée soon after they split up (before we ever met).

I would be VERY interested to know what it translates to, because he says that he researched it really well before he was inked.

PS- He has said before that the dragon and the kanji are not related, and that they were drawn up at different times.

I would really appreciate your help.

-Jen W.

DSC_0816

typically means "exhausted/poor".
from: vicki
to: "tiangotlost@gmail.com"
date: Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 10:52 AM
subject: please help me translate my tattoo

so, i got a tattoo on the back of my neck on my 18th birthday and was told it would be the kinji symbol for "princess".

through recent research via internet, all i can find is "princess" being 2 symbols not one. can you ease my mind and hopefully let me know this means princess? if not, i would love to know what it means and which language is actually on my neck.

thank-you in advance!!

2010-08-09 01.16.31

by itself alone means "palace", not quite princess.

Monday, August 9, 2010

from: Brian L.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 3:36 PM
subject: Tattoo

Hi there,

I apologize for emailing you out of the blue but I’m hoping you can help me.

Many years ago I got a tattoo that was done by an artist who was allegedly Japanese and claimed could read Japanese. Today I now teach Japanese martial arts and I’m embarrassed to say that my tattoo doesn’t mean what it was supposed to. Can you help me translate this?

I’d greatly appreciate the help.

Regards,

Brian


image

means "lonely" & means "reality", however the compound phrase 寂実 does not exist.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

from: Crystal F.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 7:53 PM
subject: wisdom and transience?

Hi,

I stumbled across your blog, and through my reading, I remembered my friend's new tattoo.

So, he claims the crane represents wisdom, and the characters mean "transience," (He posted the photo on Facebook, and in reply to a friend's comment asking what the characters meant, he said, "In this case it means transience.")

Additionally, he received his new branding at the *famous* Ed Hardy's Tattoo City SF (Yes, the Ed Hardy.)

So, is this correct?

Thanks, Crystal


friend-tat

How does (cherry) relate to "transience"?

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

from: Jeff L.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 4:44 AM
subject: My silly-ass tattoo

Hi Tian!

Very nice blog you have here. I was wondering if you could help me re-translate (hopefully correctly this time) my first ever tattoo!! (surprise!) The top should read "to excel", the inside should read "strength", the outside "to persevere", and the bottom "to find happiness".

Thanks!

DSC00754

In Japanese, 我慢 means "to persevere" or "patience, endurance, perseverance." However, it means "I am slow" in Chinese.
芽出度い, which can mean "happy" but can also colloquially mean "pregnant" or "crazy."
from: Carla M.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 1:20 PM
subject: Could u help me with my tattoo?

Hi,

I have a chinese tattoo and I'm probably the 200000th person who claims your help to know if I'm as stupid as all people who trust their tattoo artist... I had believed during 10 years that my tattoo means an "C" a "K" and an "S"...I'm right?

Thanks!!

junio'10 (17)

Carla is another person with gibberish faux Chinese tattooed on her back.

http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/2006/08/gibberish-asian-font-mystery-solved.html

http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/2009/11/another-set-of-gibberish-english.html
from: Lindsey O.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sat, Jul 31, 2010 at 11:51 AM
subject: tattoo

One of my exes has several tattoos that are either hanzi or kanji, though I am not sure which. I had always wondered if they actually mean what he believes them to, and was able to find a couple of pictures that had two of them (though, unfortunately I couldn't find any of the other one/ones). Those attached are supposed to say "way of the tiger" and "way of the dragon."

DSCF0029

Granted these were not high resolution photographs, however 道大虎 and 道大龍 are not exactly "way of the tiger" and "way of the dragon".

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

from: J. S.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 5:58 PM
subject: Tattoo Translation

Hello,


I just stumbled across your blog and thought that you could assist me in verifying the meaning of my tattoo. I did them myself late one night a couple years back while apprenticing at a tattoo parlor.

Thanks

J. S.


Tattoo_kanjis

First of all, the top character is upside down. Bottom characters 阿呆 means "fool, idiot".

The tattoo is very fitting & means "bitter [or suffering] idiot".

Sunday, July 11, 2010

from: Paul W.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 9:47 PM
subject: Tattoo Question

Hey,

I saw your blog on Mental Floss and thought you could help.

I have a tattoo, it's supposed to be kanji for hope, but I haven't been able to find a symbol that matches it and has the same meaning.

Actually, I haven't been able to find the symbol at all.

Is there anyway you might be able to tell me?

Thanks in advance,

Paul W.

Photo0206

means "date, period".

Saturday, July 10, 2010

from: ian b.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 8:41 AM
subject: Tattoo translation dilemma!

Good afternoon,

I found your blog by googling 'What does my Chinese symbol tattoo mean?'

I was perfectly happy that my Tattoo meant 'friendship' for over 10 years until i recently researched symbols on the Internet and discovered that mine doesn't appear to relate to which it was sold as.

Can you assist me in a true translation fnr my tattoo.

Thanks very much in advance.

Ian

tattoo

does not mean "friendship" as Ian was first informed if it is read as Chinese. When read as Japanese, (なか), it is interpreted as "relation; relationship".

Thursday, July 8, 2010

from: james h.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 3:52 PM
subject: Lost In Translation

I ran across your blog in the hopes that you might be able to translate my tattoo. A buddy of mine has the exact same tattoo and he got me it as a gift for my birthday. Over the years I've questioned the authenticity of the meaning and turns out he has know idea what it translates to. He told me it was kanji for "Fear No Man" , but I've looked in to it and know where can I find any similarities between what I have and what I have researched.

I would appreciate your help in translating my tattoo so I could have some peace of mind.

Thanks,

James

IMG00343

棺材佬 means "coffin man".

However, the middle character of 木見才 does not exist in Chinese character list.
from: Wendi B.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 3:42 PM
subject: Tattoo

Hello, I found your blog randomly through "stumbling" and thought I'd toss my tattoo your way. When I got it I thought it meant "calmness" (out of a book at at tattoo parlor I worked for when I was young and dumb).

A few months later, a Japanese exchange student came in and told me it meant "lonely." So I just thought it would be interesting to see if you concur. Sorry it's a little blurry (also the artist used a tattooing method to make it look "brushed on"...and it's old at this point).


Thanks,
Wendi

tat 001

has multiple meanings when it is used alone. When read as Chinese, it can be interpreted as "solitary". However if it is read as Japanese, it would mean "lonely".

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

from: Justin
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 7:42 AM
subject: Tattoo query

Hey,

I was reading your blog and it very interesting. I have been having this dilemma of finding out what is the true meaning of the tattoo I got in my teen years. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a million.

IMG00096-20100707-1739

元氣 means "vitality", in the tattoo is distinctively a variant used in Japanese.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

from: Kim B.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 8:43 AM
subject: Tattoo

Your blog is fascinating. I have attached a picture of the tattoo I have on my left shoulder blade.

I got it while in New Orleans and like the shape of it, I'm just not sure how it translates. When people ask, I usually tell them: Stupid American (although at the time I was told it means beautiful or beauty).

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Kim B.

tat

If this character is intended to be "beauty", , then it is missing a horizontal stroke. However, the joke does not stop there.

Chinese character for sheep is , and what Kim B. has on her shoulder blade does indeed look like sheep with a little dropping.
from: mike h.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 11:28 AM

Hi,

I have a similar story to those posted on your blog, my sister allowed a trainee to practise his 'art' after a day of indulgent partying and likewise has no idea what this 'disaster' means.

I really hope you can help.

Many thanks.

Untitled

Whoever got this probably over-stretched a book on a copy machine. The characters size are inconsistent. My favorite part is the tattooist even included the period behind .

妙法蓮華經
is Lotus Sutra.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

from: tim
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 2:32 PM
subject: tattoo interpretation

A coworker of mine has a tattoo he got while he was out partying a couple a years ago and has absolutely no idea what it means. Can you tell us?

Thanks,

Tim

photo

Why would anyone be proud of tattoo that says: "to commit any imaginable evil"?
from: john r.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 2:58 AM
subject: tattoo translation help please...

Hi There

I have enjoyed reading through your blog a few times and this weekend talking to my girlfriends sister, I felt need to ask you for help. She was showing me her tattoo, that she had a few years back which is supposed to be Heavenly Girl in Chinese. Having looked at the characters, I recognised the first as being the Japanese Kanji for Heaven, Im not sure it means the same in Hanzi or not, but I could not recognise the last two characters as anything related to girl or woman. Although I can recognise the first character as - (sky, heaven) and the last character which I think is - (government official, official), the middle character is awkward. I think it is - (leaf, block, cake), giving 天丁吏, which I don't know how this would work combined, but all these are Japanese translations anyway. Any chance you can shed a little more light on this?

Thanks very much for your time

John

photo

It is 天使 or "angel" with 使 not clearly written.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

from: Alexandria C.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 2:24 AM
subject: tattoo translation help please...

I heard about your blog from a friend and decided to check it out cause i am worried about a tattoo i have personally. It is supposed to mean " live for today" but i would really appriciate it if you could help in translating the picture of it attached. Thanks do much for your time!

0617000522

Alan and I saw tattoo template of this for sale back in 2007:

生現 “Live For Today”

As is, this gibberish means nothing in Japanese or at least nothing like “live for today” and I don’t think it means anything in Chinese either. The only meaning I can guess is that if it were written 生きて現れる, this would mean “to show up alive” or “turn up alive” as if someone thought dead had appeared alive. Anyway, it sounds pretty spooky, like seeing a zombie!

I think the person who made this up just looked in a dictionary for the word for “to live” and a word that means something like “now” and thought you could stick them together to make “live for today.”

It doesn’t work like that.

Monday, May 31, 2010

This photo was posted in Checkoutmyink.com with title, "Kanji - No Fear".


I have never seen 否怖 used as "no fear". Typically 無畏 is used.
I purchased a Camelbak 100 oz Unbottle from REI yesterday, here is its multilingual instruction card.

IMG_2165

However traditional version of Chinese had many of its characters missing, replaced with underscores, while the simplified version is intact.

IMG_2167
These two t-shirts are for sale at local Target store.

IMG00100-20100530-1851

Both characters printed on this Lucky Lu's Casino t-shirt are upside-down. One character is , meaning "warm", and the other resembles 殿, is "temple". I have no idea what "warm temple" had any association with casino.

IMG00101-20100530-1852

I have no idea what the character on the left is. One on the right is 誕, "birth".
from: Jenn
to: "tiangotlost@gmail.com"
date: Sun, May 30, 2010 at 10:50 PM
subject: Misrepresented chinese tattoo

Hi my name is jenn I got this. Tattoo seven years ago it was supposed to say destiny in Chinese, however I've been searching online for this symbol but can't seem to find it, the destiny symbol does come close to what this looks like! In desperate need of translation help. thanx

photo

The common phrase for "destiny" in Chinese would be 命運. Character shown here is Japanese variant of , which could be interpret as "fate". If not read carefully, Chinese readers would think it is , which means "green".

Saturday, May 8, 2010

from: CW
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, May 7, 2010 at 1:08 PM
subject: Tattoo

Hi

I saw your blog and was hoping you might could help me. The image attached is that of a tattoo I got years ago without researching it. A friend drew it up for me and the symbols were something she copied from a tattoo magazine she had. I'm now starting to regret it because I have no clue what the symbols actually mean. The picture isn't the greatest but hopefully you can see it clearly enough. Can you help me out please?

Thanks,

CW

bonsai

I don't recognize the top character, but the bottom one resembles or .

Sunday, May 2, 2010

CheckOutMyInk.com / Kanji

Uploaded in CheckOutMyInk.com by Ikon720:


http://www.checkoutmyink.com/tattoos/ikon720/kanji-86

Alan and I are curious what is the reasoning behind such large tattoo. Even more, large tattoo with an obvious error in it.

Untitled-1

CheckOutMyInk.com / Promise To

Upload in CheckOutMyInk.com by Jennafur with caption:

My gf & I both have this on our left hips. It says "promise to" b/c we made a promise to be in each others lives, no matter what happens. She is a wonderful person & I want her in my life always... regardless of our relationship.

Hip: Promise to... on CheckOutMyInk.com
http://www.checkoutmyink.com/tattoos/jennafur/hip-promise-to

However does not mean "promise", but "permit, to allow".

Sunday, April 25, 2010

"Strong Willed Woman"

from: Jaime S.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sat, Apr 24, 2010 at 2:21 PM
subject: So I got a tattoo...

Hey guys, my name's Mari. I've always been a fan of the blog, and I was wondering if you could verify my tattoo's meaning.

I'm a foreign language major, and I've studied both Mandarin and Japanese in the past. I decided to translate the meaning of "strong willed woman" into 英気女 (eiki onna). So... is this correct? I sure hope so!

I sent you a pic, too. Thanks a lot.

eiki onna

At the very least the characters are written correctly as if it was supposed to be Japanese.

Unfortunately, 英気女 does not mean "strong-willed woman" in Japanese.

It is more like "brilliant woman" or "woman of excellent ability" if they were to translate it literally. But even this is not a proper translation because 英気女 is not grammatically correct in Japanese.

It lacks the proper grammatical bits and such, so it sounds very brusque and looks sort of "faux Chinese" to a Japanese person. To be proper, they would need to be written 英気に富んだ女性 [eiki ni tonda josei] if "brilliant woman" was intended.

But it cannot be proper Chinese because the simplified character form is used only in Japanese. In Chinese, only the character forms (traditional) or (simplified) are used.

Another problem is that it seems quite inappropriately boastful and prideful for someone to tattoo themselves with "brilliant woman" in a Japanese context. One would only say this sort of thing about someone else, or as a goal to strive for, and not as a label on your own body. The most common usage of 英気 in Japanese is in the phrase 英気を養う [eiki wo yashinau] which means roughly to "rest up to be able to demonstrate one's full ability."

Certainly there are other, much better, ways of saying "strong-willed woman" in Japanese. One might be 意志の強い女性 [ishi no tsuyoi josei].

Better luck next time,

Alan & Tian

Eiffel Tower's Official Site


http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/

For a country which has its own government agency to ensure linguistic purity & accuracy, one would think France would have same standard for other languages as well.

Apparently not so, as seen here at the official website for Eiffel Tower.

The button for Japanese [日本語] is missing first character.

(Thanks Ulas for the tip)

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Plagued by Blogger bX-tb9qow Error



Alan, myself and several readers have noticed this error when trying to access comment function of older postings.

As of right now, there is no fix from Blogger.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

from: Brendan B.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 8:22 PM
subject: Lady Gaga's Japanese Arm???

Hey,

I love the site and I came across this picture of Lady Gaga in Japan and I was hoping that you could figure out what she had written all over her arm. Knowing Lady Gaga, I can only imagine. Thanks a lot!


Brendan B.


http://justjared.buzznet.com/2010/04/13/lady-gaga-is-new-to-narita/

Alan, who is a long time Lady Gaga fan (just kidding), has this to say:

Lady Gaga? Hah! But I think she is terrific and it is just so typical of her to have someone write random things in Japanese on her handbag and arm.

Anyway, the text on the handbag, which looks a lot like the text on her arm (which is partially obscured) reads:

アイ ラブ スモール モンスター [I love small monster]
東京 ラブ [Tokyo love]

The text on her arm is actually different from that on her bag:

アイ ラブ リトル モンスター
[I love little monster]

Hot on the trail of the "little monster," I see that Gaga seems to call her fans the "little monsters" and she even has a tattoo that says "Little Monsters."


So no doubt she meant リトル モンスター [ritoru monsuta-] to mean her Japanese fans. Now she just has to fire the person that wrote "small monster" on her handbag. :)

By the way, that is a Hermes Birkin bag priced worth about £3,000.

http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk/star-style/fashion-news/450544/lady-gaga-goes-japanese/1/

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

from: Ben
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 12:16 PM
subject: NY Daily News: Photos: Tiger Woods' alleged mistresses Joslyn James, Loredana Joli, Cori Rist, Rachel Uchitel

Hi Long time fan! I was looking up stuff on Tiger Woods and came across this gem. The caption says her (Joslyn James) tattoo says "betrayal" in Chinese.
First line: "coming" in Japanese?
Second: In my dreams
Third line is something like karmic retribution written incorrectly (yin guo bao ying) and below that "highest satisfaction" Last line not sure. Any ideas?



楽しみ [enjoyment/pleasure]
夢中 [in dream/dreaming]
因果応報 [cause & retribution]
最高潮 [climax]
裏切 [betrayal]

Sunday, April 11, 2010

from: iona c.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 10:03 AM
subject: what does it mean yall?

Yo! A friend just got this tattoo... what does it mean yall?

tattoo
from: Chuck R.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 8:17 AM
subject: Hanzi Smatter submission

Just stumbled onto your site and have been laughing my ass off for the last hour! I have a friend with a lame Chinese/Japanese/something-or-other character tattoo that I'm dying to know what it actually means.

He tells us that it means "Mighty Whitey" (and while i could explain to you its non-racial origins i would probably just be wasting your time), but i can only imagine that it actually says something along the lines of "anglo-saxon douchbag dick-licker"

Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated!!!

Chuck

Red Barn on NYE 048

強勢的色 is a word-to-character translation of "brave's color".
from: Heath R.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 3:54 AM
subject: Chinese Tattoo

Hi, I got this tattoo done when I was very young and very drunk a long time ago and have since forgotten the meaning.

Can you help me out please?

Thank you.


Heath.

07042010118

Thursday, March 18, 2010

from: DeKalb D.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 3:24 PM
subject: Henna tattoos at Six Flags

Hi Tian :)

I was walking through Six Flags over Georgia today and came across this in a henna tattoo booth.

What really confuses me is that while most of the descriptions are accurate, ALL of them are backwards except one - is labeled as "lovers" but backwards is labeled as "love"!

First thing I thought of was of sending it to Hanzi Smatter and letting the world see it :)

DeKalb :)

Henna tattoos at Six Flags (1 of 2)

Henna tattoos at Six Flags (2 of 2)

Saturday, February 27, 2010

from: Camilo E.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 2:28 PM
subject: my tattoo

Hi,

My name is camilo and i write from Venezuela, i just want to know if you can help me to translate my tattoo because i think that is not what i want for my skin jajaja. I went to a tattoo store and i look the chinese and japanese letters that they offer. I ask to the guy if i can tattoo my name initials and he say YES!!!!.

Well, i send a photo of my tattoo to see if you can translate for my.

I appreciate your help.

Best regards.

CE

26022010044

Gibberish font strikes again.