Don't wear something if you don't know what it says! >.&l
 

Well...it's time for me to share another work story. :3

There is this woman who comes in every now and then. Hardly speaks a word of English. I always have to speak to her in Spanish in order to get ANYWHERE with her. It doesn't bother me that much; most people in this town are bilingual, and about 60% of the town is comprised of native Spanish speakers. Today, though, it really bothered me.

She came in tonight wearing a black shirt with large white print that read "I want to fuck you."

It was painfully obvious to me that she had no clue what it meant. It made me feel physically sick. >.<; And it reminded me of another gem we have...though he's more humorous than sickening.

He is a native English speaker; I can tell by his accent. And he has this Japanese tattoo on his neck. Now, I am...getting pretty good at reading written Japanese. It is supposed to say æz», meaning "death." However, the radical 夕 is written as two strokes, forming a piece of nonsense, and the top stroke is separated from the rest of the character.

He is the wannabe kitchen ninja, or the grin reaper. I've wanted to point it out to him for quite some time...but it's too fun to laugh at him when he leaves. I love when people try to make themselves intimidating, but fail horribly...though I must admit, I kinda feel bad for laughing.

Really, it reminds me of a scene from my favorite movie, where there's this crazy American guy who got the word "kitchen" in Japanese tattooed on his arm. He believed it said "ninja," and went around showing it off to several people who knew better. Less than ten minutes after one of the saddest scenes in the entire movie, I was laughing my brains out.

So really, the point of this thread is...have you seen people wearing things they clearly didn't understand? Was it funny, disturbing, or just sad? Had you, at any point, thought about wearing something you couldn't read/understand yourself, but trusted someone else's translation?

Discuss that. Or anything else you can pull from what I said up there.

There were a a guy at my old school thought he was being super hardcore when he got a tattoo in Chinese that he proclaimed said 'Lover' or something like that. They even put it in the yearbook. But my Chinese exchange student looked at it and laughed. Because it actually said 'Grandmother'.

What can I say? I love that movie. For many reasons. XD;;

Tattoos you don't understand = lame, and potentially hilarious. I have been considering getting a kanji tattoo, but that's because...I can read it. And I know where to look up any characters I can't read BEFORE getting them permanently marked on my body. XD;

If you have a picture of your sister's tattoo, I can probably tell you what it says. What does she think it says?

@Penny: GRANDMOTHER!? Oh, god...that's priceless. XD It's 1:30 in the morning, and I burst out laughing over that one. XD

Hehe...I had to enlarge the text in order to get a good look at that one, but when I did...I couldn't stop giggling. First 13-stroke character I grew familiar enough with to write; means elegant; graceful; refined; gracious. ON-reading, ga; KUN-reading, miyabi.

Birth name of my second favorite singer. I see this character on my playlist every day. XP

And waiting until you know for a fact that someone knows what they're doing is definitely a good idea. Having it done by someone who doesn't know...could cause you to end up like the grin reaper here. XD

Engrish makes me laugh. X3 I've never seen any particularly good examples myself...but hearing some of the things listed on this thread, for example, always makes me happy. Luckily, I haven't heard of anything obscene yet. XD I can't say I have a problem with profanity, except when the person has no idea what the hell they're saying. XD;;

I'll never understand why people would get something tattooed on them in a language they didn't know. I guess I'm just paranoid that someone would mess with me and put something stupid there instead. As for what orlybirdy said, that's hilarious. xD I can see why the guy who tattooed that would do it, but he's probably setting himself up to get sued big time.

I don't know what the appeal of foreign languages is, either...but I do know that Chinese/Japanese writing does look very elegant, so I can kinda understand. If I were to get a tattoo of anything in a foreign language, though, I'd bring it in printed on paper, so the person knows for a fact that I'm gonna know if he screws with me. I won't even wear a shirt I can't read/don't understand, so I definitely wouldn't get a tattoo if I couldn't read it! @[email protected]

@orlybirdy: ...so now he's the poultry warrior? :lol: Serves him right for asking for something so arrogant when he wouldn't even know how to read it himself. XD

@Alice Elliot: Sadly/luckily, there are no actual swear words in Japanese. Chinese, however, is different...those new to the language learn to say "how are you?" before just "hello," because "hello" in a different tone is a pretty nasty swear word. XD;

I must say, I would feel quite odd if I saw someone walking around with a foreign curse tattooed on them. Sickened, but at the same time...probably quite amused. XD

I only have two shirts that have japanese kanji on them. One means American, the other is like some sort clan name.

I've seen people wear thins that they don't know what it means. It could be chinese and they say it's japanese. Then there are those who where shirts with spanish on them. Of course they know what it means, but I don't. >_<

Ours isn't the only culture whom finds appeal in shirts and tattoos we can't understand either. :3
My friend saw some...-very- interesting phrases in English and some in Russian during his travels abroad.
Now to give credit, SOME people did know that their shirts gave, well for one example a detailed order on where one could stick a banana. (eek)
But they bought it becuase they thought the illustration that went with it was cute.

But it is true, I would never trust a Kanji I hadn't checked against my dictionary. There are too many 'translators' whom think its funny to have someone stuck with the words "I'm a puppy" on their arm.
Or my poor friend whom got the word "Dirt" tattooed on the back of her neck. She still likes it becuase the word is elegantly done, but she also teases people telling them she has some dirt on the back of her neck.
She got -really- lucky, the one she -almost- chose would have apparently been one that fundamentally meant she was a "working woman"...and I do not mean in a business suit.

I own 3 shirts with kanji on them but I always make sure I know what is says, no dictionary no deal, I'll come back when I can be sure.

True. I didn't think about that, but I'm sure they could find a pretty text that they can write their own language in. I think it might have more to do with them having something 'exotic.'

You know what else would suck? If you got a tattoo in another language while you were drunk. Then afterwards you couldn't even remember what it meant. xD

*raises hand*
I attended a half military college... I did see that happen XD
he did luck out though! It didn't mean anything terrible. Actually it ended up being Tiger, though he was still irritated becuase as best he could recall he wanted to get his Zodiac Animal, being 'Snake'

There was a guy who sold his story to a national newspaper because it was that funny. He had a tattoo done and he wanted it to be his name or something like that in I think it was Chinese and the guy who did it put "Coke-Cola" insted of what he wanted so the guy was going round for 5 or so years until someone asked him why he had "Coke-Cola" tattooed on him. He plans on getting what he wanted done in the first place done and correctly this time. And that is why I'm never ever going to get a tattoo done in a language I don't understand because it might say something else.

._. Wow...why would someone even make a t-shirt that says that?..^^;