Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

I'd always suspected...

Nobody's girl

03:00 / 05.12.04

Hanzi's Matter

When I was young and foolish, I had a long-sleeved t-shirt with some characters printed on them. Upon seeing this t-shirt my Granpa, a Japanese POW camp survivor, growled "I bet that's some sort of Japanese curse." I laughed it off at the time...

Sean the frumious Bandersnatch

04:21 / 05.12.04

I tend to look down on people who get Chinese or Japanese tattoos. Too many people get nonsense like "fire strength" tattooed on their shoulder, not realizing that some people can read Japanese. Sure, it may look cool to them, but it registers in my brain much the same way as it would if the word were in english. This website makes me feel a bit better about my assholish elitism.

Crazy Diarrhea

Triplets

04:56 / 05.12.04

*twists head Exorcist style and looks at back*

*sob* That's not true! That's impossible!

8===>Q: alyn

09:11 / 05.12.04

Hilarious! I love that a site mocking the guaylo for mangling Chinese is, er, totally mangling English:

"Even though, they did it for Halloween, but the characters written on their arms..."

"the Village People sang about YMCA, everyone thought it was a great tone, until the public realized YMCA was a place where homosexual men meet up..."

Uh, er, that's right! Crazy guaylo!

Whisky Priestess

10:29 / 05.12.04

I think the point is that the Chinese/Japanese guy commenting hasn't had his slightly broken English inked permanently onto his body ...

8===>Q: alyn

10:39 / 05.12.04

Oh, hush, I know that. I just think it's funny.

Papess

17:30 / 05.12.04

I think "Crazy Diarrhea" is supposed to actually be translated as Crazy Shit, but I could most definately be wrong, as I do not speak or read chinese.

Rev. Orr

18:31 / 05.12.04

Yeah, but it looks cool. That's the problem, isn't it? That it may say 'weeping bedsore' to you, but to me it's an aesthetically pleasing icon. It's the same reason that every now and again some fashion designer can't understand the fuss generated by their adding Koranic text to a dress - "but it goes so well with the pleating...". Still, we haven't had a good 'aren't dreamcatchers evil' thread for a while.

Triplets

21:59 / 05.12.04

Oh, and the site is called Hanzi Smatter.

frownland

22:06 / 06.12.04

Dodgy, uninformed tatts are not limited to kanji, and not everyone that has kanji is an idiot. But yeah, this is pretty funny

unheimlich manoeuvre

17:42 / 08.12.04

there's one of those urban myths about a guy who got a Sanskrit tattoo in Goa.
after a few years he got it translated, it said "this idiot mistakes poverty for spirituality".

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:59 / 08.12.04

I remember many years ago reading an interview with someone (okay, it was Wayne Hussey... as I say, it was many years ago and I was much younger and... oh fuck it) in which he told the tale of a guy in Leeds who either couldn't read or was dyslexic who, instead of getting "Leeds United", ended up getting "The Pointer Sisters" tattooed on his arm. Apparently he was a very large chap, and nobody had the balls to point it out to him.

Add Your Reply