Inked

A year or two ago I went to see Bob Saget at a Comedy Club in Orange County.  Opening for him was B.J. Novak, who many of you will know from the US version of The Office.  He had one joke which I thought was hilarious.  He remarked on how everyone these days is getting Chinese characters as tattoos.  You know, they’ll get the Chinese character for “luck” or “happiness” or something like that.  His joke was, “You know what I want to get?  The Chinese character for cliché.”

One thing I’ve learned on my journey through this language is how contextual it all is.  The character you have tattooed on your body might mean “luck” in one context, and it might mean something totally different in another.  Its meaning might change based on the character that comes before or after it.  And I bet most of the time people who get Chinese character tattoos don’t independently learn about the characters, they just pick them out of the artist’s book when they go into the studio.  So while they might think they’re getting the character for “luck” they might be getting “dog turd.” See the update to the previous post for the “plum” example.

If you’ve ever considered getting a character tattoo, don’t.

Lee, Could you do me a favor and ask your Chinese friends what the word and character they would use for ‘empiricism’? Also could you ask them what other things this character could mean in different contexts?

It’s always fun to laugh at people with character tattoo’s. I don’t know which is funnier..... character tattoos or a barbed wire arm band. Both are incredibly gay. A black panther is also pretty cliche. I see those everywhere. It’s the same tattoo but sometimes the panther is going up the arm or sometimes its going down the arm but it’s the same freakin tat! Why anyone would go into a tattoo shop and pick something out of a book that a thousand other people picked is beyond me. I thought tats were supposed to be unique, original and personal. I have 3 now and will be getting another next month. None of them are out of a book.

I apologize if I offended anyone reading this. That was not my intent. I just happened to be looking at pictures and designing my new tattoo last night so it is fresh on my mind. I’ll be taking my ideas to my tattoo artist this weekend to let her do her magic and will put it on me next month.

I’ve seen a LOT of ink my time - I don’t think I’ve actually seen more than a handful of tattoos that weren’t complete crap.

Personally, I’m glad the era of the “slut ID tag” on the backside of every girl under 25 is over.

heh i told one of the punks at work that his Chinese tat on his neck meant “ i take it in the ass”.
He got pissed, asked how o know that, i told him i banged a Chinese chick for 6 months.. i know..
the guy freaked out..
i finally gave in at the end of the day and told him the truth.