What does that ink really read?
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Who really cares what that new Kanji tattoo says right? I mean, you probably don’t speak a syllable of Japanese, but the characters look damn cool! You have that badass street cred and a smooth looking Japanese tattoo to match. Isn’t it nice how the tattoo parlor had all those helpful binders full of Kanji?
Americans love Japanese characters. In the five years I’ve been in this country, I have seen Japanese writing on jackets, T-shirts, hats, billboards and backpacks. Madonna even used Japanese characters on the cover of her latest album, “Greatest Hits Volume 2.�
More often than not, the words and phrases are nonsensical. For example, the characters on Madonna’s album cover, (mojijiramimiji) aren’t even words. If you tried to pronounce them, they would sound like earthworm (mimizu) and lice (shirami).
My advice to anyone contemplating a tattoo is to find a respected professional who speaks whatever language you’re hoping to get permanently inked. And if you’re wondering if other countries misuse English words, they do. A friend of mine told me how she visited Korea and saw a young girl walking around with a Nike swoosh t-shirt. Instead of the usual “Just do it”, it read “Do me”. If any of you have seen that shirt, let me know.
They used to have those shirts for sale at the nearby beach, and might still be in some of the tacky joke shops around town.
If you want to check out some really messed up english though, http://www.engrish.com !
It’s Chinese character, in fact.
Kanji and Chinese characters do look similar.