Ransom Riggs
That Tattoo Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means
by Ransom Riggs - January 30, 2009 - 11:31 AM

Chinese and Japanese character tattoos have been sweeping the West for a decade or more now, to the extent that most of our readers probably know someone who has one. Perhaps it’s just a single discreet Chinese hanzi tucked into the inside of a lady’s wrist — or it could be several huge Japanese kanji blazed across a man’s back. They may tell you they know what their tattoo means. But do they really?

The blog Hanzismatter has been translating odd tattoos, tee-shirts and other misused Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters in the West since 2004, and over the years has exposed some truly ridiculous body inkings. (The site was overwhelmed with traffic the last time I checked it; I had to use the Wayback Machine to find these great examples.)

“Crazy diarrhea”

tattoo_kuangxie.jpg

Chinese translation:
ç‹‚ = crazy
瀉 = to flow out, diarrhea

My hypothesis is that either the tattoo artist had a wicked sense of humor, or the customer picked out a few random characters from a book that he or she thought looked pretty. (This is why all your Chinese friends snicker at you, btw.) Also, this tattoo appears to be located just above the waistline on the lower back; its proximity to aforementioned crazy outflow can only add credence to the translation.

“I support a non-existent ethnic group”

tattoo_MarcusCamby.jpg

The NBA’s Marcus Camby sports these Chinese characters on his right shoulder and bicep. Big and bold, they’re hard to miss and certainly make a statement on the court: a statement which says “I support a non-existent ethnic group.” Hanzi explains: “Usually the character 族 is used in Chinese referring to a certain ethnic group. In this case, without any detailed explanation, Camby’s tattoo means he is a member of the 勉 ethnic group, which is nonexistent.”

“Whipped husband”

tattoo_fuxu.jpg

A husband and wife got these matching tattoos. The wife’s tattoo means “wife” in Chinese, and the husband’s means “husband” or “son-in-law.” But in Japanese, the same character means “man who takes his wife’s name,” the English equivalent of saying someone is “whipped bigtime.” Gotta watch those double-meanings!

“Abusive husband pimps me out”

tattoo_lafushijianren.jpg

Unless this is a cry for help, this woman got majorly punked by her local tattoo artist. Submitted by a reader of BMEzine.com.

“I crave male genitals”

tshirt_diao.jpg

An eBay seller claims that this shirt means Fu** in Cantonese, but that’s not quite true.

Any readers have mistranslated tattoo stories they’d like to share?

Thanks to Chellis Ying for pointing out Hanzismatter to me.

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Comments (49)

  1. The character meaning“man who takes his wife’s name,”means adopted groom (“muko”), not “whipped bigtime” in Japanese. It is a common practice in Japan in (usually rural) households that wish to preserve their family name but have no sons. It has no shame attached to it.　It also means simply “groom” or “son-in-law.”
    Let’s be careful when correcting something that we don’t replace mistakes with more misinformation.

    posted by Over 20 Years Living in Japan on 1-30-2009 at 11:55 am

  2. I saw something interesting similar to this post about a year ago, only it was reversed. There were Chinese and Japanese people getting tattoos of English letters that either didn’t make any sense, or said a bad word.

    posted by Ryiah on 1-30-2009 at 11:58 am

  3. Any inkling I had for getting Chinese-character tattoos has been successfully killed off, ha.

    I wonder what these people were told it meant when they were getting it done….

    posted by Sarah in CA on 1-30-2009 at 12:16 pm

  4. i have several tattoos (and plan to get more) but i have never had the desire to put foreign languages all over my body.

    reCaptcha: multitudes quarrel
    kind of poetic, no?

    posted by the creature on 1-30-2009 at 12:21 pm

  5. The other day I saw a Japanese teenager with the word ‘Sandwich’ tattooed across his back. He told me it was an English symbol that meant ‘warrior king’.

    posted by EV on 1-30-2009 at 12:29 pm

  6. At one point I heard a story from a tattoo artist about a guy that thought he got his name tattooed on his arm. He was a tall guy (this will be important later). His name had 4 letters and he got 4 characters… he thought all was good.

    Unfortunately, all the Chinese international students laughed at him whenever they saw it. Finally he got up the courage to ask one of them what it meant. Apparently (/supposedly) it actually read something along the lines of “Tall as tree, dumb as log”.

    posted by Troy in TX on 1-30-2009 at 12:31 pm

  7. I have a tattoo of a purple squid on the back of my leg as a memorial to a friend of mine wo died of cancer. Everyone tells me it looks like a condom on hot of a medusa head because they just glance at it and don’t bother to actually LOOK at it.

    posted by Kate on 1-30-2009 at 12:36 pm

  8. I got a Chinese character tattoo when I was in college (forgive me, I was in COLLEGE! we all did dumb things). Anyway, it supposedly says “spirit” although when I thought about it later I realized it could say anything and I wouldn’t know the difference. I thought maybe it said something like “stupid American” or “short brunette”. My friends made fun of me, not because of what it could me but because they started chanting, “we’ve got SPIRIT, how ’bout you?” I’m definitely NOT a cheerleader type.

    I’ve considered getting another tattoo but will be much more thoughtful in my choice next time.

    posted by Liz on 1-30-2009 at 12:45 pm

  9. I got chinese characters tattooed on the back of my next when I was 19. Luckily I was smart enough back then to do my research. I am happy to say that is has been confirmed many times by different people as being the correct translation.

    Extra tidbit. I chose the back of my neck for two reason. 1. It’s easily hidden if I wear a shirt with a collar. 2. If I ever got tired of it I wouldn’t have to look at it on a daily basis.

    posted by Nick on 1-30-2009 at 12:46 pm

  10. That is funny! It is kind of like taking advantage of a passed out drunk at a college party. Writing all kinds of humiliating words, applying makeup etc.. At least that type of embarassment washes off in a couple of days. Think TWICE when choosing a symbol to have inked permanently on your body.

    posted by mo on 1-30-2009 at 1:47 pm

  11. This post just gave me a good idea for a Chinese character tattoo.

    Is there a character for “inconceivable”?

    posted by Zach on 1-30-2009 at 2:18 pm

  12. I have never understood why non-Asian people want Asian tattoos.

    posted by Carrie Burrows on 1-30-2009 at 4:47 pm

  13. I speak a little Japanese and considered at one time getting my name as a tattoo…then it hit me: if I wouldn’t get my name tattooed onto my body in English why does the katakana make the difference?

    Also…it really makes some people mad when you read their tattoos in kanji. I asked this guy once what his tat meant and he said it was a secret…I said Oh, and I thought it said ‘Full of Spirit’ (or whatever it was, can’t quite remember) and it made him SO mad!

    posted by Amauriel on 1-30-2009 at 4:55 pm

  14. After the untimely death of her brother a friend , and a number of the guys buddies, decided to honour his memory by copying a tattoo of which he had been very proud. Just one problem… The chinese characters translate to :”cheap and easy little brother”

    posted by Petuniasweetpea on 1-31-2009 at 8:48 am

  15. This so reminds me of a story my friend Little Dave has. This guy was over in Asia and got his name tattooed on his arm. He was so proud of it that when he got back to the states and opened a store he put the symbol right up on the sign. One day two Chinese tourists were found outside laughing their arses off. When he investigated they told him the symbol meant “Shiny head guy”.

    posted by scott on 1-31-2009 at 11:29 am

  16. I have the kanji symbols for courage on my back but I was born in Japan so it kindda means something to me and I checked the meaning with my japanese professor before I did it (yeah it was an 18th birthday compulsion too)

    posted by Shawn on 1-31-2009 at 4:00 pm

  17. The last one so isn’t “I crave male genitals.” It’s just “dick.”

    hxxp://www.cojak.org/index.php?function=code_lookup&term=5C4C

    And given the English translation on that page (“(Cant.) obscene exclamation”) I’m willing to give them a little leeway.

    posted by Colin on 1-31-2009 at 4:16 pm

  18. i had one done when I was young(er) and dumb(er) that they told me meant ‘spirit’. come to find out, it meant warrior. Thankfully, it was easily covered up!

    posted by Laura. on 1-31-2009 at 6:03 pm

  19. My cousin bought be a purse with a Chinese character on it for my birthday. It was supposed to ethnic and cool I guess. Anyway, a friend of mine saw it and said that in context it meant one thing and by itself (as the design had it) it meant something obscene. Oh the joys of misguided globalism!

    I saw a girl in the middle east wearing a shirt that said “TIME” in sparkles. She probably just thought “cool, western lettering” and didn’t realize that it made no sense. :)

    posted by Yonit on 2-1-2009 at 5:05 am

  20. I was living in Italy for a while, and once, during one of the Saturday markets, I saw this really cool jacket (at least, all the 12-year-old non-English-speakers thought so) that was black and sparkly and had the English words “FUCK BITCH” printed all over it. Yeah, I should have bought it.

    posted by JenPo on 2-1-2009 at 6:18 pm

  21. I have several kanji tattoos, 2 on my chest, and one on my back. I made sure to double and triple check all of them before I had them done. And I know for sure they’re correct, I walked into a store one day with my chest tatts showing, and the japanese dude behind the counter read them off, and said, “Life and Death? That is much too serious for a pretty young girl.”

    Yay they’re right!

    posted by Amdela on 2-2-2009 at 8:58 am

  22. “Slumped” in Chinese means “more than the drastic devaluation of the meaning of” is meant more than diarrhea.

    “Women” and “son-in-law” is a women and her husband meant.

    What does it mean there is no rest, grammar barrier!

    Thanks!

    posted by usd6 on 2-4-2009 at 5:04 am

  23. Hi, as the person who made and sold the “Fu**” t-shirt, and as a native Cantonese speaker, I can definitively say that 屌, “diu,” does in fact mean “Fu**” in Cantonese. I say “diu nei” to all you righteous Mandarin speakers who don’t know what the “Fu**” you’re talking about. The rest of you armchair linguists can “diu” yourself also. Don’t you people fact check before publishing?

    posted by Diu T-shirt Creator on 4-10-2010 at 8:50 am

  24. owned ^

    posted by rofl on 6-21-2010 at 6:27 am

  25. The only Asian script I would ever put on my body would be “I surrender” in Chinese. I can always tell everyone else here that it means warrior and when the Chinese finally decided they want their money and the USA says screw you I know how to surrender when they send the ninja’s over.

    posted by Kevin on 6-22-2010 at 10:28 am

  26. ^A ninja is not from China. A Ninja is from Japan. Do you happen to have any hanzi or kanji on your body…?

    posted by K on 6-22-2010 at 11:59 pm

  27. Where can I get the t-shirt shown on the last pic? I love it!

    posted by Joel on 7-5-2010 at 11:41 pm

  28. As a gay man that last T shirt would be wonderful…

    posted by Cloneast on 7-21-2010 at 10:08 pm

  29. i was born in hong kong, and i am fluent in chinese. I just want to say that the t shirt one does actually mean fuck in cantonese, or cool in taiwanese

    posted by a guy from hong kong on 7-22-2010 at 5:35 am

  30. I stayed in Japan for 3 months on a business trip and they do the same thing but even MORE often. I worked at Universal there so I got to see a lot of “young” fashion. I saw shirts with phrases like “always smile and fresh”, “I heart friends but I hate you”, “Save your mom, ware a condom” “fuck” “Win lucky girl I have” the list gos on and on and on

    posted by chelsey on 7-27-2010 at 5:16 pm

  31. I’ve seen this customer come through Subway [where I work] a few times. He has a couple of kanji tattooed on his neck. One is 悪/bad, but I haven’t seen the other. I thought for a while it might be 夢/dream, but it doesn’t seem like it… I definitely don’t support getting random kanji tattooed unless the customer -really- knows what it means.

    That being said, however, I would really like to get a tattoo in memorial for my dad. It would be a somewhat calligraphic form of 父 – it means father in japanese, and i think a couple of other things, don’t quite remember.. – on the inside of my left wrist. It’s been on my mind since he died about two years ago, but I’m still not sure if I want to get it..?

    posted by kat on 7-29-2010 at 10:09 pm

  32. The diarrhea tattoo actually has a pretty interesting backstory to it… The guy fully intended to get that knowing what the “true meaning” was. He had a medical history attached to a radically hilarious story that changed his life and got the tattoo to commemorate it. You guys really don’t research before you publish, do you?

    posted by trychtopus on 7-31-2010 at 9:38 pm

  33. Anyone knows what this means?

    http://a.imageshack.us/img814/2835/47009010326778883600778.jpg

    posted by malpolon on 8-5-2010 at 5:55 am

  34. This is why you do research, and if possible speak to a friend who reads chinese/japanese/korean…wtf-ever.

    I have Japanese kanji, Faith and Honor, a trusted lady friend of mine mentioned that they are similar to the Cantonese symbols for Trust and Virtue. Close enough.

    posted by Weez on 8-5-2010 at 9:14 am

  35. I have the Chinese symbol for Wife tattooed above the symbols for Life and Death (together meant to be “forever”)… in theory, meaning I would have my wife with me wherever I went.
    About a year after the divorce, I realized that it could also be interpreted as ME being the wife in a relationship. =|
    Luckily, the adorable chinese college girl and her Father that translated for her just went “awww…well at least it wasn’t her name, so you can get married again and just use it for a new wife!”
    I’m thinking I’d rather have someone sear it off of my skin with a lazer, instead.

    posted by Velocigoose on 8-12-2010 at 9:39 pm

  36. Hey – i LOVE the idea of supporting a non-existent ethnic group! I wouldnt mind that tattoo!! :-)

    posted by David on 8-14-2010 at 5:56 pm

  37. Am I really the only person who is going to point out that kanji are Chinese symbols used in Japanese?

    posted by Rin on 8-16-2010 at 9:15 pm

  38. Kanji is taken from Chinese Hanzi, but it has been changed significantly enough to make the writings and meanings different for the most part.

    posted by Daisy on 8-20-2010 at 1:29 am

  39. wouldn’t being a part of a non existent ethnic group represent that he doesn’t believe in dividing the human race by ethnic groups??

    also it doesn’t state what he thinks it means

    like its a reasonable tattoo or something.

    posted by derp on 8-24-2010 at 8:17 am

  40. I have a few kanji tattoos. I got them mostly because they are beautiful looking and arent as lengthy as english lettering. I made sure to ask around alot before i got the ones i have and double/triple checked them. If your too stupid to double and triple check what they mean before you get them you deserve too look like the ass you are.

    posted by chefrose on 8-27-2010 at 4:28 pm

  41. Wonderful! I’ve been wanting to place a tattoo for quite a while. Me happy that I decided to learn Chinese before stepping into a Shop …. :)

    posted by Franklin inZen on 8-28-2010 at 8:14 am

  42. The last t-shirt does mean fuck.. it has nothing to do with craving male gentials. I speak cantonese and I can read a bit of it so i know what i am talking about.
    Would stile like to own that t-shirt tho hahah

    posted by Chun Long on 8-29-2010 at 10:19 am

  43. My favorite was the girl with the “Cheap” tatoo.

    http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/graphics/kod242_1.jpg

    She thought it meant peace and calm… which it normally does if conjugated but when it’s alone it means “cheap” or “on sale”! I tried to tell her as diplomatically as possible but it didn’t go over too well.

    posted by Greg on 3-23-2011 at 3:07 am

  44. heh that’s why it’s good to know Japanese… if I ever wanted a Japanese symbol, I would know what it means…

    posted by niknik on 4-1-2011 at 7:25 pm

  45. I keep seeing people with the Japanese symbol for ka or 9 and they keep telling me it means strength or something?? I’m not so sure…

    posted by Lucy on 6-30-2011 at 10:47 pm

  46. I was thinking about this when I read one of those jokey sites with misused English translations for signs,t-shirts etc.I was just pondering the fact that we think this is humorous,when so many Americans wear oriental calligraphy on their bodies and really don,t know what it means in most cases. All I can say is: “Bite the wax tadpole”

    posted by max verde on 7-20-2011 at 1:39 pm

  47. This reminds me of when we did a Japanese play in high school. Two of the characters were supposed to be moving head stones so our director told me to paint some Japanese kanji on them. I decided to paint “cute butt” on one and “I’m stupid” on the other. The director had no idea, the stage manager who speaks Japanese knew what it meant and she thought it was pretty funny. Later we performed the play for an elementary school and one of the kids came up to one of the characters that carries the head stone and said “haha stupid”. I thought it was pretty hilarious.

    posted by person on 8-15-2011 at 6:39 am

  48. All those tatoos mean exactly the same thing. They all translate into “I am stupid”. Look at those ugly friggin things. How can anybody be so friggin stupid!!

    posted by redjujube on 9-5-2011 at 2:24 am

  49. honestly people who don’t know what they are should open their mouth… you should always check to make sure you know the meaning of what ever you are getting. oh and it probably would be a benefit to make sure that the kanji is written in the correct stroke order (considering just changing one bit of it can cause it to mean something different or be a completely different language. i know what im talking about since im japanese!

    posted by taylor on 10-18-2011 at 11:00 pm

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