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Tattoos gone horribly wrong | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5320 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes  Speaks: German*, English | Message 1 of 12 06 September 2010 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | ||
Ever since celebs started getting tattoos in languages that they usually neither understand nor are interested in, they seem to become more fashionable. But often they go horribly wrong. My favorite example is this one:
The young woman ended up with disjointed Arabic letters that make no sense at all. I also remember an African American guy who had جمل (jamal = camel) instead of جمال (jamaal = beauty, also a proper name) tattooed on his wrist. Other great examples can also be found at Hanzi Smatter. What is the weirdest foreign language tattoo that you have ever seen? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6122 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 3 of 12 07 September 2010 at 12:01am | IP Logged | ||
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That is really interesting. It doesn't surprise me at all to find out that many of these foreign character tattos make no sense. I find the whole tattoo thing extremely bizarre--even more so when they are in languages that the tatooee doesn't understand.
Tatooing is actually a very ancient religious practice: 'You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD Lev 19:28 (written circa 1400 BC). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5272 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese | Message 4 of 12 07 September 2010 at 12:09am | IP Logged | ||
Another definition of جمل is actually "Sentences" which would of course also be an absurd tattoo. The artist that did both of these tattoos should be fired. Of course I find it extremely stupid to get a tattoo in a language you can't speak anyway. Fortunately for us there's not many dumb Americans getting Arabic tattoos. I honestly feel sorry for the language learners of Japanese and Chinese who see their target language massacred this way. Edited by CaucusWolf on 07 September 2010 at 12:20am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| GauchoBoaCepa Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5419 days ago 172 posts - 199 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish | Message 5 of 12 07 September 2010 at 2:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm thinking of putting a tattoo on my skin in three languages or more...and on my back....obviously with short sentesies....the pic above is so hilarious. Edited by GauchoBoaCepa on 07 September 2010 at 2:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6949 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 6 of 12 07 September 2010 at 7:40am | IP Logged | ||
Well, it goes both ways - I've seen so much butchered English, French, and German in Japan (and a bit in China, in the short while I spent there) that it doesn't even faze me anymore. In fact, it shocks me whenever I see proper English on a sign or menu somewhere. Thankfully, getting tattoed isn't a mainstream thing in Japan, but the moment it becomes popular I'm sure I'll be faced with the awkward dilemma of having to tell someone what the phrase they have indelibly inked into their body really means. Maybe this is just the American in me speaking, but I think that tattoo artists who create faux-foreign language tattoos with a meaning obviously different than requested should not only be fired, but sued and made to pay for the removal procedure. But of course, there must also be cases of customers who go to non-Arabic/Chinese/Japanese-speaking tattoo artists and say, 'can you please tattoo this phrase which I came up with from Google Translate/by typing an English phrase using a foreign font in MS Word onto me?' Such people can't be seen as victims of anything other than their own stupidity. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 6075 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 7 of 12 07 September 2010 at 11:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I have tattoos in other languages, not all of which I speak.
I have three Japanese tattoos (verified by natives) , one in Latin, and two in Spanish from Argentina. I also want to go back to Brazil to get one in Portuguese, and in the future, if I become fluent in Italian, I want to go to Italy to get one in Italian. People say they can read me like a book anyway... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5320 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 8 of 12 07 September 2010 at 12:09pm | IP Logged | ||
Out of curiosity, why did you pick languages that you don't speak? Was it just the coolness factor? Edited by Doitsujin on 07 September 2010 at 12:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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