Tattoos Lost In Translation
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- Опубліковано 24 лип 2022
- Hazardous hanzis, calamitous kanjis and everything in between! Whilst the likes of Reddit and Bored Panda helped, a special commendation is owed to hanzismatter.blogspot.com for their superb work on this topic. I have made efforts to pronounce and analyse everything correctly but I aint no polyglot so if anything is wrong please scold me in the comments.
Toilet Goblin made me make the most horrific cackling seagull noise I've ever heard. I would genuinely get that tattoo on purpose.
Same! Fucking hilarious
I would wear that tattoo with pride 😌
If anyone gets that tattoo solely because of this video I will be equal parts impressed and horrified
@@Matt_Rose You shouldn't have said that. I have never been more tempted to make a worse decision.
Made me think of the anime Toilet-Bound Hanako. I don't know anything about the show but that's what "Toilet Goblin" made me think of
"She wanted 'Bad Ass' but she got 'Evil Butt'"
That's literally what she asked for.
I mean yeah in looser translation it literally means the same thing.
A few of these literally belong in r/TechnicallyCorrect.
魔尻
@@rauntche cool i totaly understand the symbols you just... said? Wait can you say symbols or do you... i don't even know anymore
Actually kind of an upgrade? Bad is like kicking down a row of motorcycles, evil is... idk, kicking down a row of nun's motorcycles.
Tattooing "foot" on your head is the highest form of comedy and that person should be rewarded.
yes, he should also get 2 tattos for foot saying 'head'
@@equilibrum999 "head 1" and "head 2"
@@ChaosEnthusiast And just FALSE on the one arm and nothing on the other one.
@@linklink3069 yes lmao
Are you sure it's not the person who wrote a tampon brand logo on a person? Or what about the guy who wrote illiterate foreigner?
“Translator server error” tattoo in a foreign language is actually a top tier tattoo, self-irony and meta commentary at the same time. Probably much deeper than whatever else was planned for the arm.
I could dig it
It feels like an amazing conceptual joke in itself, whether intentional or accidental.
I would agree that it's likely better than whatever was intended. =)
Same goes for "illiterate foreigner". I'm not going to get a tattoo, and if I did it wouldn't be in a language I don't speak, but if it was I'd definitely go for one of those two options 😀
@@studiouskid1528 No idea, since I don't speak any of those languages, but good luck getting a tattoo in a language that doesn't have a written form 😀
Means the tattoo-er was just plugging phrases into google translate and tattooing whatever came up. In this case, google didn't have a translation for whatever they typed in but gave the Mandarin version of the error message. /chef kiss
These seem to fall into three distinct categories: 1)They got exactly what they asked for, but it did not mean the same thing in Japanese or Chinese as it did in English. 2)The tattoo artist did not speak Chinese or Japanese and copied the character wrong 3)The tattoo artist knew exactly what they were doing 😂😂😂
I feel like it's mostly the third one with the second one closely following
@@octosquid48I have a feeling I know which one "cheap shit" was...
There is also a fourth category: the (Japanese or Chinese) tattoo artist misheard the client's request (such as "College" instead of "Courage").
That's the thing, too -- nine times out of ten, you cannot do a word-for-word translation in Chinese because it will definitely not mean the same thing....or just won't make sense 😂
@@yurenchu Especially when there is no differenciation between r and l in japanese
Got to be honest, the guy with the economic recession tattoo for sure got what he asked for.
That tattoo artist knew what he was about. Probably still laughs about it
He wanted his money 😈😈
I mean I wouldn’t be mad. The guy did ask for bad words.
true
Oh I'm the thousandth like💀
“Illiterate Foreigner” is probably the most brutally honest and relevant tattoo I’ve ever seen.
Exactly my thoughts. It summarizes the whole "I want a chinese/japanese/korean etc. tattoo" and getting something they didn't want at all.
it's so people can recognize them when they're on a trip
like the signs they mark on cows
You heard him say "fish," right? 😂
I think that had to be intentional
Huge fan of how the Live Laugh Love tattoo artist didn’t realize that “koi” (恋) for romantic love and “koi” (鯉) for Japanese carp are not, in fact, the same kanji
I though it said live laugh crap
So the tattoo means
Live
Laugh
*AKIRA NISHIKIYAMA, TOJO CLAN NISHIKIYAMA FAMILY PATRIARCH*
@@markomega8719 TEN YEARS
@@yapflipthegrunt4687 Didn't expect someone to actually get the reference. I feel like Yakuza is slowly becoming the new JJBA.
"I once believed there was only one way to write 'Gullible White Boy', but then I met a tattoo artist who had written it a thousand different ways." My Chinese friend's mom, when she saw me admiring some tattoos on a Google image search.
My friend tried to get a 'I am vegetarian' tattoo in japanese but it ended up saying 'I am made of vegetables'. When told this, my other friend said 'you are what you eat'
Well, they didn't lie
They're not wrong
And that's why my client is an innocent man, your honour
@@gremlin8635 better call Saul
Perfect.
ok but getting "translator server error" tattooed on you is actually fucking hilarious
Like that sign that said "Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i'w gyfieithu"
"Estás usando este software de traducción de forma incorrecta. Por favor, consulta el manual."
@@jacobthesomething Wow. That's so beautiful. Spanish is such a sensual language. Thanks for helping me work out what I next want to get inked!
As a translator/ interpreter i often do get mental/brain “translator server error” moments, especially near the end of the day. 😁🤯
@@jacobthesomething portal reference
I worked with this white guy with a chinese tattoo. I asked him why he had that tattooed on him. He said it means "wise man". A Chinese coworker goes by while we were looking at his tattoo and I asked her to look at it. She goes whyd you tattoo that? He said it means wise man. Shes like no, its an herb.
He got the word "sage" tattooed thinking it meant wise man, but the character was for the plant
sage is sometimes used to refer to wise people
@@chimpanzinc1790 Yea the word sage in English refers to either the plant or wise people, however its different characters/words for sage plant and wise people in Chinese. Sage plant (鼠尾草). Wise people (圣人 / 聪明人 / 圣贤）
so it’s also ironic in this case hah
That's a very clever play on words, as sage means wise.
@@SarafinaSummers Except in Chinese sage is called "mouse-tail grass"
I mean, "dead person at no charge" is technically correct depending on you interpret "free spirit"
You should do this again but for English tattoos in foreign countries. I heard about one that said "no pan, no gain"
As a pansexual I agree with that statement
@@belladonnaplumb9376 🤣
Sometimes your making food to gain nutrition, and you realize you dont have a pan
Clearly in that situation, you have no pan, and so no gain
@@belladonnaplumb9376 Stop fucking my Pan
I think I remember seeing one like that it instead it said “no pen no gain”
Worked on a rig in Indonesia and asked the radio operator to print a label for a flight case which would read “Computer - Fragile”
Got stopped by the police at Changhi airport who asked why I was walking around with a case which read “Confused and delicate” 😂
Unlike tattoos, you can easily remove labels
Underrated comment funny
Now that's a tattoo I'd want
They just described me
"ELECTRIC BRAIN (FRAGILE)."
(Yes, computer in Chinese is electric brain.)
If memory serves, it was something like “Bingung Kacau” in anglicised Indonesian
The Latin phrase, 'Sit dolor amit' translates as 'let the pain be lost', while the one-letter difference of 'Sit dolor amir' means 'let it be a pain in the ass'. This one difference could make for a hell of a tattoo lost in translation.
Please for the love of God, don't get "Dolor sit amit" tattooed. Neither "amit" nor "amir" are words in Latin. "Let the pain be lost" would be either "Dolor amittatur" or "Sit dolor amissus".
"Dolor sit amet" is a part of a commonly used placeholder text in graphic design ("lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..."), which is intentionally NONSENSE LATIN. Most of the words just look Latin without meaning anything. Please don't get "Dolor sit amit" tattooed on you, it makes you look like an unfinished webpage.
@@easternlights3155 yep ^
Apparently in Urdu (and perhaps Farsi), the word for "angel" and "prostitute" are waaaaay too similar
@@easternlights3155profile picture checks out
@@easternlights3155Unless you are a nerd who likes the filler text
I love how half of these are legitimately understandable mistakes and the other half of them were obviously pranks. it makes perfect sense that "grand son" could've accidentally been translated to "fat boy," but there is no goddamn way that a chinese tattoo artist tattoed "Illiterate Foreigner" by accident.
Translator server error
Yeah, with the clothes, in chinese is yi Fu so it's understandable if the tattoo artist just misheard them and didn't question a foreigner mixing up the pinyin.
That's my favorite because it's true!
the outlaw becoming snitch after translation cant be a coincidence can it?
there was a guy who said he got "God-Almighty" tattooed on him, and it really said "stupid foreigner"
I mean... "economic recession" is legitimately *really bad* so I think the tattoo artist did exactly what was asked of them.
This one is pure malicious compliance, I love it
I agree.🤣👏
"You come at me, you'll never financially recover from it!"
Especially in China
when i was about 10 my parents let me decorate my room however i wanted. i decided on wallpaper painted a sky blue. the wallpaper in question was textured and had two repeating Chinese characters because i though it would demonstrate how deep and spiritual i was (as a 10 year old white boy). we later had some Chinese foreign exchange students stay with us. one of them came into my room and was so confused. I asked him what was wrong without realizing and his response was "why do you have East City all over the walls"
at least it was something more explicable than, idk, "fish paste" or something
At least it wasn't something rude.
“Use other entrance” was actually pretty clever and probably intentional.
A common thing for artists to do is write something stupid in Chinese, Japanese and Korean (most commonly). They then sell the artwork to someone who does not understand the language who will then put the picture that says ‘cheese with a side of nachos’ on their wall.
Edit: Matt, next, you should do people misnaming celebrities.
Edit 2: omg! Just realised this got 5.4K likes! Tysm!! (Sorry to be that person lol)
@@dianaayt he said that it was most commonly Chinese AND Japanese AND Korean, not just Korean
@@dianaayt I’m not sure, but I think they meant that Japanese, Chinese, and Korean are the most common languages, not just Korean.
people also do it with english words to sell to the japanese, i once saw a post of japanese people walking around tokyo with stupid things written in theyr shirts.
honestly though
yep
I'm currently studying Japanese, (or more correctly, trying to study Japanese) and I think it would be funny to get something really weird tattooed on purpose. People might think I tried to get something fake deep, but in reality I have tomato criminal on my arm.
id do the same if i wasnt a wimp
Omg sameeee
Same, I want to get "知らない" sorrounded by something aesthetic someday, think it'd be funny.
"Tomato criminal" would make for an amazing tattoo.
トマト犯罪者 ー tomato criminal
A friend of mine wanted to have the "Year of the Ox" (the Chinese calendar year she was born in) tattooed on her ankle (who knows why). The tattoo artist decided that "I am a cow" in Chinese was appropriate.
Wait until someone wants a "Year of the Dragon" tattoo, only for the artist to write, "Year of the Worm" instead. (Fun fact: In Chinese, a common saying is that the opposite of "dragon" (龙) is "worm" (虫, can also translate to "insect" or "bug"), because dragons are seen as powerful, majestic, and scary, but worms are seen as pathetic and weak. A popular insult in Chinese is, "You think you're a dragon, but in reality, you're nothing but a worm/insect")
@@nicholaslienandjaja1815 Then comes the Applin line...
I mean, technically still correct, but it just doesn’t have the same ring to it, y’know?
@@nicholaslienandjaja1815 I mean, as a Dune fan I wouldn't entirely mind Year of the Worm.
@@nicholaslienandjaja1815wait, can I get this saying with pinyin? I'm trying to learn Chinese and I love this insult
Kanji can carry different meanings in Japanese and Chinese. Kanji were originally Chinese characters that were introduced to Japan because they had no writing system at the time. I even watched a video of Japanese people trying to read Chinese and they can’t understand even though they know the Kanji because the meanings are different, and they don’t use kana.
I’m not entirely sure all of these tattoos are “wrong” we may just be translating them incorrectly. Translating between languages is always tricky, you can’t just take an English phrase and 1 to 1 put it in Japanese or Chinese. For example, Ariana’s tattoo does in fact say 7 rings, it just can also be read the other way.
Yes, it's like taking the Swedish word "fartkamera" and seeing the words 'fart' and 'camera' in it and thinking that's what it means, when it doesn't.
It's funnier to read it the wrong way though
Probably the reason why Japan still uses kanji rather than hiragana
I want to add that kanji have multiple readings in Japanese, usually at least two, and often more. Specifically, one is a traditional reading from Japan and another is their approximation of Chinese one, BUT in Japanese. There can be multiple regional ones borrowed AND a reading that's used for place and people names. It DOES depend on context, but doesn't have set rules for when each reading is used, people just get used to them.
i.e. 刀 (Chinese character for Tao/Dao) on its own will have kun'yomi reading of "katana", but 太刀 (big sword, Da-Dao) will be read as "tachi", Japanese Sword (日本刀) will be pronounced "nihonto". How do you know when 刀 is "katana," when it's "chi," and when it's "to"? You just memorize. It's like Hebrew or Arabic not having consonants, at some point you just get used to... guess... the unwritten part, but for kids and language learners there are fonts with extra script on top or bottom (furigana) that helps pronunciation (Hebrew has Nikkud).
The worst thing is that there's infinite amount of characters (as they get combined in all ways) but only that much sounds, so when transliterating names into Chinese you have to pick ones close to meaning, and in Japanese you just use kana. BUT personal Japanese names often do use Kanji so when people introduce themselves they often add explanation to which character is used in their case by meaning, i.e. Ana-as-in-hole.
The "Seven Rings" one is actually "The Seventh Ring", but that's a lot closer than OP's attempt.
Imagine getting one of these on purpose, and then when asked by a native speaker what you think your tattoo means, you look them in the eye and say “Squid butt fairy.”
the ultimate troll
I'm just imagining a picture of Ursula from the Little Mermaid as a fairy and thank for that
@@catrinacoons390 Her wingspan would have to be enormous.
@@ijustdocomments6777 I mean, you have a point, but she could just be tiny like most fairies
@@catrinacoons390 no, make her into a giant cthulu monster
The one with "Live, Laugh, CARP" actually makes sense. For the last word, they requested "koi", which (depending on context) means both "carp" and "love" in Japanese, with different kanji ofc.
@Polar Barracuda if you do you should include Magikarp the Pokemon
i knew something was looking different about that live laugh love when i saw it
i was like hmmmmmmm but "koi" didn't look like that, omg it's literally koi
It's carpin time.
I love actual koi fish so...double koi!
Actually, on that note, the grill one isn't too far off either! The word for the grill is is shichirin, which indeed just about means "seven rings".
I heard somewhere that the tattoo error might have been done on purpose for the laughs, but I don't really follow pop and it was also years ago, so I don't know how true it is...
I got the word quiet tattooed on my arm. People think it was an accident, but really i got it for my Japanese aunt (not a blood relative). The only time i ever heard her speak was when she told her about-to-become-ex-husband "quiet." She had been so quiet for so long, and so now it was her turn to demand silence.
I love that so much. It's rare that I feel a genuine flare of pride for a stranger.
I'm sure a big part of this also results from people not considering that Chinese writing and Japanese kanji are *entirely different languages* from english so maybe that very English idiom you wanted on your body doesn't actually translate into anything that makes sense. Not to mention the many many different ways that kanji can be read. Anyway, maybe don't get permanently tattooed in a language you don't understand if you're never gonna be able to actually appreciate the meaning even if it did translate right. Like, what are you getting out of it? The thing that gets me the most is people asking for "their initials in Chinese". *That's literally not a thing*. If you don't even understand the BASICS of a language (like that it isn't spelled with letters) then what meaning will it have for you?
If the vibe they're going for is "oh it looks kinda cool and evokes memories of kung fu movies or Eastern wisdom (or whatever other stereotypes there are for Chinese/Japanese) and nobody will know what it means so it can mean whatever I want it to in the moment" then it works fine, most of the time
@@redsunrises8571yeah but in that case it’s just cringe as hell
Right?! No initials 😂 Even the transliteration of your English name into Chinese can be a matter of opinion, and then if you're given a Chinese name.....yeah, just know that you know exactly what it means first 🤣🤣🤣
"live, laugh, carp" actually sounds like a good alternative to "live, laugh, love" for country boys
At least the "r" was after "a" and not before it
!!!
The mistranslation also kind of makes sense, koi is both the Japanese carp and a Japanese word for love.
Since I despise the “live, laugh, live” craze, I would probably do something like this on purpose.
@@carlosdasilva2409 I read it as live life crap.
This is hilarious! As someone who speaks Chinese, I'm going to keep a lookout for tattoos like these. There are so many words that sound similar but mean completely different things. I can imagine someone getting a tattoo on their 40th birthday and thinking it says "40", but it actually says "dead snake".
Or "16" and "pomegranate".
And shameless plug...
I'm also hoping some of you might like the music that I make :)
Question as someone who is just beginning to learn Chinese. The one at 1:57 that says "Bitter Idiot", The character for Ku is upside down. Is this intentional?
@@PaintingWinterMusic I’d probably like it if you didn’t self promote
@@teegan-rose You're right, it is upside down, and I'm honestly not sure why. The other two characters （阿 and 呆）are written normally, so I don't know why 苦is not. Maybe a stylistic choice?
@@PaintingWinterMusic That's what confused me. I thought it may have been 2 different characters but nope, just written incorrectly for some reason.
Sidenote: I just realised your username is Painting Winter Music and I'm in a band called Saving Winter, how crazy!
My favourite tattoo "accident" is the guy who had "Please may I have permission to use the toilet?" in Irish "An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas". Apparently, they thought it said "You will forever be in my heart " but I reckon it was a comedy tattoo.
I bet it was. 🤣 That's the first thing people learn in most Irish classes. It might have been that it was for someone who taught him Irish though!
Circa 1945 in Australia my grandmother was on a train with her friend (both in their early 20s) who had embroidered Chinese characters on her blouse, a Chinese bloke across from her couldn't stop laughing and informed her it meant "mother of nine"
“Illiterate foreigner” is absolutely perfect. If I’d just asked for random characters, and got that, I wouldn’t even be mad.
I mean, he wouldn't be wrong though.
@@mikialovic5304 yeah but he would be human trash
lol
I heard about a Japanese tattoo artist who had an American customer who asked for a tattoo that said "lover of Asian beauties" in Japanese
The artist wrote "foreign pervert" instead
ive heard of that too
XD
it was written 'gaijin biantai'?
What a hero
Oh my god that is so funny lmaoo 😂 good on that tattoo artist I hope they're doing well XD.
As a person who speaks Japanese, I saw a tattoo on a woman’s shoulder that said “I’m a potato” and NOT “I’m passionate”.
When I was a kid, living in Japan, my family and I would sometimes see people wearing T-shirts with random English words on them, exactly like this. I remember one T-shirt had a prominent Pepsi logo, but said something like, "exit here".
Also, we would sometimes see signs that were spelled bilingually, but the English so badly misspelled, it would sometimes be months before we figured out what the sign was intending to say. The only one that comes to mind right now, part of the sign read, 'yootereti', which meant to say, 'utility'.
Just today I saw a garage sale sign
I guess
It said GARGAE
Thats all, GARGAE
On both sides too
I briefly lived in Japan teaching English and my fellow teachers and I had a competition for who could buy clothing with the most nonsensical English on it.
My favourite thing I saw was a gorgeous young woman, with immaculate make-up and hair, wearing nice skinny jeans, high heels, expensive-looking accessories... and a black, fitted t-shirt with huge, gold glittery lettering saying "cl*toris" (non-censored). 💀💀
My sister purposely got the words "dumb wh*re" in Korean on her back and went online to troll people by asking them to translate it (she told them it was supposed to say live laugh love-)
that sounds great LMAO. imagine having to ask a tattooist to put "dumb whore" on your back
YOUR SISTER IS AN ICON
What a legend
Your sister died for our sins
ur sis is legendary
Once had a nice middle aged woman come into my job wearing a shirt with Japanese on the breast pocket and along her back. In horror, I asked her where she got the shirt and said her husband was a businessman who bought it for her while on a business trip and "it says, Hello Kitty or something".
It actually said something more along the lines of "dominatrix". I didn't have the heart to tell her, but it remains my favorite encounter with something being "lost in translation".
what is that? Is that a matrix character?
Yago, you sweet summer child 😂
$20 says the woman's husband secretly wants her to be a dominatrix for him.
someone explain what a dominatrix is
@@gjkdshgkjshjkgdfg A woman dominating their partner
Someone who overheard me speaking Chinese asked me what their tattoo said. Now, I can't _read_ much Chinese but I knew that one...So Chinese characters can have more than one meaning depending on context. The topic of conversation can change what the character means in that situation or what other characters its paired with. While the same character _can_ have wildly different meanings, the meanings are usually at least somewhat related (though not always). Technically her artist didn't lie. He told her it meant 'transcendent spirit' which, well it CAN mean that, but its more commonly used to mean demon or evil spirit sooo...
Context is everything 😅
There was a story going around in 2015 about a guy in an Arkansas Walmart who had a Hebrew word tattooed on his arm. When someone asked him what it meant, he said "strength." It actually said matzoh, which (quipped the interlocutor) was appropriate for a tasteless cracker.
What baffles me is people who asked for their initials. Like, the ENTIRE CONCEPT here is that they have symbols that stand for words or ideas, not letters that correspond to phonetic sounds. Your initials are, like, the ONE thing that it makes ZERO sense to ask for! How can you fail to understand something on such a basic level?
THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYING! It makes no sense! But I guess when you have no consideration for the mechanics of a language and just think it looks neat, that thought wouldn't really cross your mind...
It's seems pretty consistent that the kind of person who would get a tattoo that isn't properly translated would be likely to get a tattoo that *cannot* be translated. Either way, they don't have to learn anything about the language and that's just fine for them.
@LastName Almaember I don't think Chinese has a syllabary. Bopomofo lets you construct syllables from parts like Korean, but I get the impression it's used for typing and as a pronunciation aid in books for semiliterate children, and not much else.
and like, in Japanese you could get Hiragana or Katakana for specific sounds but those still usually translate to more than one letter in English. there's no "T" there's "ta, te, to" etc. The only standalone consonant in Hiragana is "N," and Katakana is just different symbols for the same set of sounds as Hiragana. Initials are possibly the worst thing you could ask for because unless your initials are all the letter "N" or all vowels there is 100% chance it is not getting translated correctly.
@@lanturn3239 That "N" is exclusively used for the end of a syllable, no it would still look weird to someone that knew the language.
I'm pretty sure there was a story where someone had 変態外人 (read as hentai gaijin in Japanese) tattooed on them and they think it means lover of Asian beauty. It means foreign pervert. As someone who can speak Japanese fluently, that made me absolutely lose it from laughing so much.
Well "lover of Asian beauty" sounds creepy as fuck too
@@DianaWanMa yea it sure is
If I was a Japanese tattoo artist id do that too
Oh, so he got exactly what he asked for?
the tattoo artist is based
“Free Spirit” and “Dead Person with No Charge” reminds me of “Dirty Deeds Done Dirto Cheap” and “Filthy Acts at a Reasonable Price”
To be fair to the "A Chinese tattoo. In Thailand" part, Thailand actually has the biggest overseas Chinese community in the world between 7 and 10 million people, as well as the oldest! King Rama I, founder of Thailand's reigning dynasty, was part Chinese! I'm a language buff and as great as it is to see people interested in other languages (by learning other languages, we open up our minds about the world surrounding us), I'd only recommend getting a tattoo in another language if you understand what the tattoo will say. I mean, if they don't know but still want to, I won't stop them specifically, as it makes good laughing material
It's like someone making a big deal out of "A German tattoo, in Poland!"
It’s you
And the guy before him was also part Chinese, taksin I think, he was teochew and used his teochew roots to do trade with china through the local teochews.
It's funny because I had a Thai friend who bragged to me about "our culture is unique among Asians in that we're neither Chinese nor Indian influenced, like everyone else", then getting drunk and "confessing" (I literally haven't argued - or cared - about that) that "actually we have major influence from India in our culture"... and now you tell me that they have Chinese influence as well. So Thailand has both bleed-in... which makes sense since where they are, I mean, look at European languages where you fight over calling coffee with a term borrowed from Turks, or through Arabs.
"I love my grandson" being "I love fat boys" is actually just a misunderstanding from the the translators part, they've must have accidentally wrote in "Grand Son" and not "Grandson"
Translating that would probably make that guy look like a chubby chaser out of context lol
Probably Google translate
No, “big fat boy” (大胖小子) is a common term of endearment for your children or grandchildren. It doesn’t literally mean fat, it means healthy. Okay it does mean fat, but that’s because the skinny ones used to die off. But since it’s a saying, no one would actually think it means fat.
I heard a story about a guy who intentionally got "steamed pork dumplings" tattooed on his arm just so he could make ordering at the local Chinese restaurants easier.
For steamed hams.
That sounds like the story from @dangitdoodles in this comment section
Legend
豬肉餃😂
I was just eating one and im dead
In college, my classmate from China laughed everytime a certain caucasian lady from a nearby class walked by. The caucasian lady had a Chinese character tattoo on her lower back, which she showed off all the time. I finally got curious and asked... The character was a certain variation of the word chicken which was used as slang to describe a prostitute.
When I've played Yakuza Kiwami I saw one random woman in the street wondering if she would get a tattoo, and Kiryu adviced her against it and to think twice because a tattoo is a personal thing and could affect your life down the line.
Seeing this video I can see why.
Yakuza have something with tattos anyay...
In Kiryu's case, he was probably referring to the fact that tattoos are often associated with the yakuza, and many businesses will not allow people with tattoos to enter as a result. Also good luck getting a job when your skin is practically shouting "gang member" to the world.
I remember reading about a (presumably nice/neckbearded) guy who went to Japan or something and wanted a tattoo that said “appreciator of Asian beauty.”
The tattoo artist gave him a tattoo that instead translated to “foreign pervert.”
Update: A close second goes to a man who got tattoos of the kanji for ‘reason’ and ‘living’ or something like that. He probably wanted it to say ‘reason for living,’ which is fair. But apparently, if you put those two symbols together, it means ‘menstruation.’
Artist was Lisbeth Salander.
Based
deserved
hentai gaijin
Artist took their civic duty to protect their neighbour seriously ❤❤❤
I'm a translator of Japanese to English and I see these all the time. My favourite find in the wild was a man with what he claimed was 'football' kanji on his shoulder, cheerfully sunburning his way down Sidmouth prom.
It actually said 瓜 (Uri) which, rather appropriately, means 'melon'. Being lubricated by a day of good cider I told him what it meant, but happily he laughed it off.
The next year I spotted him again, and he'd rather smartly had it amended to read 嵐 (Arashi) which means 'Storm'. Still not football but at least my dude was making the best of a bad job!
Hoping to spot him again this year and see what new delights that painted man has for me.
Actually genius move on that guy's part.
Yeah, no kidding, Storm is way damn cooler ngl
嵐 means mountain mist in chinese, I struggle to comprehend how it became "storm" in japanese
@@---iv5gj That meaning makes an awful lot more sense, but I feel like this could be said of half of the characters in existence.
@@LavaSaver then again, 嵐 is 山（mountain）風(wind), and japan is a mountainous island country sitting in the middle of the ocean with big storms. when you see air currents(like fast flowing clouds and mist) on top of mountains in japan, it probably means a storm is here in that context.
If you have a tattoo in a foreign language, and someone asks you "What do you think that means?" be very afraid, because it is 100% not what you thought it means
"what you got there mate, is chronic hepatitis" had me rolling
The "public cow" one isn't exactly wrong tho? "Ox" typically translates to “公牛”, with the first character meaning "male" and the second meaning "cow" or "bull". However, the first character can also mean "public" when used in phrases like “公交车” (= public traffic car = bus), “公民” (= public people = citizen), or “公家” (= public family = traditional monarchy). So, it all depends on how you interpret the phrase. I assume that the translator just read the tattoo word-by-word which twisted its meaning into being more awkward.
公 is also loosely used as the adjective "work", so 公牛 could be thought of "work cow", the cow used to do work
I guess the Chinese laughed at them because getting that tattoo was basically like if a chinese person tattooed the words "Water carrier" instead of the symbol of Aquarius
🤓
Same with “evil butt”
I thought that's why all of these tattoos turn out weird. Chinese characters dont seem to have one definite reading, so you'd have to be very meticulous with what characters you choose for your tattoo.
Imagine being some Chinese guy who travels to America for once and the first thing that you experience is people showing you their tattoo and tell you their meaning.
They be like: ,,it means good vibes only,,
But in reality it means ,,Crazhy Hamburgre,,
Or "CLOTHES! One"
@@Spongyboi897 or: HEAD for cheese
@@1-7-1lh8 or: Shower head with slippers only
@@equilibrum999 or toilet goblin
@@equilibrum999 or towel in son butt
I’m in the midst of chronic pain Hell and have been absolutely miserable all day…then I watched this video. Now, my gut and and sides are hurting worse than anything because I laughed so fucking hard! Thank you so much! Subscribing now!
If you go to like Japan and look at all the stuff people sell with English on them, they all translate like these do. So having a weirdly translated words that just looks cool, is actually fitting with the culture.
My uncle is Japanese and a tattooist, a lot of his clients are none Japanese people who don’t know Japanese.
When he asks what they want they’ll usually just say “ just write something that looks cool”
So he always writes the weirdest funniest most immature shit🤣
I remember seeing him tattoo “I like tiny bananas” across this cheerfully looking, yet Completely oblivious Korean boy💀😂
But in my uncles defence, he basically gave him permission to write anything that looked cool
小さいバナナが大好き
It does kinda look cool, the 小 part looks like a banana mid-peel
Chad uncle
@@RazorBlade651 not even like; that poor Korean boy loves his tiny bananas. Had to a dick joke, honestly, but I love it.
This Korean boy should meet the guy who had “tiny chicken” (ahem) tattooed on him
@@YeetusTheFetus Nah man I think you should get that tattooed on ya, would make ya look cool
"I asked him for some bad words, something really bad."
"economic recession"
The tatoo artist has a very dark sense of humour.
Also, I feel sorry for the girl with the "use other enterance" tatoo, people mist be thinking of some naughty things with that.
That was the point of the "other entrance" tattoo.
You could have a tramp stamp of a tellytubby and people would still think naughty things
She def meant that
Yeah “use other entrance” has to be what was intended. That’s funny af.
I think she should've done her research... Or just tattoo a language she *does* understand.
Some of these, while not what the person wanted, could very much still be cool tattoos
As a translator who's regretful of life choices, I'd gladly got myself "Translator error" tatoo
I feel like people don't realize there's words that don't have exact translations from one language to the other. Also the fact that some languages straight up don't have that word.
This is what happens when you can only speak one language and for some reason decide to get a tattoo in a different language.
True, like did that one person really think “badass” was a word that everyone had in their language?
It's pretty typical for English to just borrow words from other languages.
"delicatessen" (shortened to "deli") is German's "Delikatessen"
English also uses a lot of Latin phrases, i.e. i.e. ;)
Yeah like pro tip, Chinese doesn't have "letters", you can't get your name spelled out letter by letter in Chinese. Although you can get the typical characters used to make the sounds of foreign names, but I have no idea why you'd want that tattooed on you since it has no deep meaning whatsoever and is just like writing JOHN on your chest
@@LaurenWong64 I am now getting John tattooed across my chest
Imagine you're trying to get a funny tatoo but the Chinese artist thinks you've made a mistake and wants to be nice to you so you think for years you're the funny man with your tatoo but it really means "patience and determination."
That's great 😂
That's actually wholesome
“I came in asking for Toilet Goblin and I got Strong Warrior instead 😢”
That's why you ensure you have the exact text in Chinese written down. Don't rely on the tattoo artist to do any translation.
This kind of logic stops me from getting a lot of stupid comedic tattoos
My friend was trying to get something but then got “spill milk” our Chinese friend told us what it translated to (spill milk), it was such a good opportunity that I HAD to say “don’t cry over spilled milk”
I now unironically want a tattoo saying “Beep beep lettuce”
In English.
My father, being the absolute nut case that he is, got his coworker who is fluent in Chinese to translate “combo number 5” (or directly it’s “meal number 5”) then got it tattooed on his leg. He was so proud of it that the next time we had gone to the Chinese restaurant we like and knew the owners of, he excitedly shown his tattoo to the one owner and said “it means peace love and happiness”. She then said “no it doesn’t” then my dad confessed that he knows it means meal number 5 and specifically got it to clown on people who don’t know what they’re getting written on their body
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Combo Number 5
@@BlackBloodCombatClub Happy to know I’m not the only one who misread that the first time…
@@BlackBloodCombatClub 😄
The absolute dad joke
Should have had "2 #9s, a #9 large, a #6 w/extra dip, a #7, 2 #45s, one with cheese, and a large soda"
My mom’s friend told me this story, she had been walking down the street with her Japanese fluently speaking and writing, and she saw this woman with a tattoo in Japanese characters, her friend walks up to this person and acts them what is says, and person responds “Oh, it means ‘Love, peace, and hope!” And this person didn’t tell her, but what it actually what it said was “Anger, Sadness, and hopelessness”
LMAO
wow that got completely flipped..
that's just sad man 😭
You can’t tell me the person how made that tattoo wrote these words on purpose xD
Aw, that’s so sad
I have seen photos of 'Translator Server Error' but not as a tattoo. It was a big printed sign above a shop and was meant to be the name or nature of the business but.... you know.
If anyone's wondering about the "Live, Laugh, Carp" one, both 恋 and 鯉 are pronounced "koi" (こい).
are we just collectively gonna gloss over the GENIUS that tattooed “use other entrance” on her lower back lmaoooo
Came here looking for this!! Did not sound like a mistake to me.
Yeah, there’s no way that was an accident
When my father was a wrestler, he worked with this Japanese guy, and these four other guys. Guy number one, who we’ll call True Translator was a Japanese immigrant who spoke both English and Japanese fluently. He worked with my dad and these other guys. One of these guys decided to get a Japanese tattoo that said, “Immortality and Strength” or something dumb like that. He shows up to work the next day sporting his new ink, and True Human Translator was like, “Alright - Why the Hell do you have special fried rice number seven tattooed on your arm?” The guy never lived that down. 😂
Lol that's hilarious!
I’ve definitely heard this exact story on the internet but ok 😳
@@youngneil6456 yeah this is the internet and you heard it here
But have y'all *tried* the special fried rice number seven? Best dish ever! 10/10. Would totally tattoo that order on my arm.
@@youngneil6456 or maybe; same story, same person, different user
I once saw a guy in a public swimming pool with a huge tattoo of a chinese character on his arm, it kind of looked like the character for water 水 but had two extra random strokes, I thought I just didnt learn that one yet so I tried writing it down in my notes app to look up later, such a character does not exist.
You mean 冰 ? It means ice or cold
just to note i have very little understanding of chinese, I can only understand a small collection of characters
@@interro588 it didnt look like that, it had the two strokes on the left side, kind of in the upper corner, right under eachother
沃 maybe somehow?? 😭😭
According to Wiktionary, 永 means "eternity" or "permanent, forever" (how apt, given that it's a tattoo!).
A friend of mine had a tattoo in japanese and she had a whole philosophc story behind it. Once we went for a coffee and at the next table there were some japanese turists and I noticed they were looking at her and trying to disguise their amusement. I went to them and asked them about it and at first they didn't want to tell me, but on my insistance, they finally told me it was actually some canned mackrell. We had a really good lough!
Few days later my friend came with her tattoo covered with a different one.
Just be careful with things you don't understand and do your homework!
The character 菜( vegetables) also means "suck at something" in oral chinese, like when we say "你好菜啊( literally you are so vegetables)", we mean to say " you’re so weak". And combined with those fierce looking eyes in the tattoo, it’s even funnier lol
in English sometimes severely disabled people are called vegetables(derogatory).
@@jort93z wait fr??
@@pixxL_ Yep, it's like saying retard, super derogatory, often referred to people who don't have full mental and movement use.
@@pixxL_ yes. Not to be confused with the phrase "couch potato," which means someone who sits around all day like a sack of potatoes. My mother regularly confuses these phrases and says that a family member was a "couch potato" after he had a stroke...
@@pixxL_ yeah, being alive but unconscious of your surrounding is called being in a "vegetative state"
and people who are in this state are called vegetables
"Love and Strawberries" sounds like a generic British love novel from the 60s
Also: "Fast and foolish" sounds like a Chinese comedy action movie
Fast and foolish should have been a spoof of Fast & Furious starring Sammo Hung.
Fast and Foolish sounds like a parody of The Fast and the Furious movies similar to "The Dragon Lives Again" (anyone remember that movie's review by Brandon Tenold?)
There was a guy at this party showing off his new tattoo that had Chinese characters that he claimed to mean something like "enlightened soul" or something corny like that. All the while I was wondering if the tattoo artist may have had a sense of humor and written "pretentious jerk" instead.
i would intentionally get a tattoo that says "illiterate foreigner" just to mess with people
As a Chinese person myself, I would personally love to get a tattoo and tell everybody like "oh this means peace" but in reality it's just the character for cheese
酪 means curdled milk, creme, cheese, fruit juice, koumiss (fermented milk recipe)
Pronounced /lɑʊ̯/ and is a combination of 酉 and 各 (just visually, it isn't a compound of those meanings)
乾酪 is specifically cheese, pronounced /kän.lɑʊ̯/, first character here is a combination of 倝 and 乙 (again visually, not by meaning)
@@Liggliluff does cottage cheese belong to first or second category? Because in russian they have separate word for it, "tvorog" but in Ukrainian we call it "syr", which is a word for cheese in both languages, and it is interesting for me if other languages have a special word reserved for cottage cheese.
Oh, we call koumiss just kumys. It doesn't get translated, people know what it is because of Central Asian disapora (people from -stans moved all over USSR as your ancestors got sent to the middle of nowhere away from their birth place).
It's also funny how oil, butter and grease are all "maslo" in russian but have unique words in human languages.
Cheese is peace, because cheese is amazing
@@KasumiRINA It's literally just called 茅屋奶酪, cottage cheese
@@KasumiRINA 🔥
Having the word 'madman' tattooed on you in Japanese would've been legitimately badass if he had done it on purpose
Agreed
What, 狂人?
@@cmyk8964 Yes, seeing it typed out makes it that much funnier though considering it more means 'mentally deranged person'.
@@cmyk8964 yes
Read through the first few hundred comments and laughing like crazy, now at around @0:40 'picnic table' one destroyed my lunch. Menu items make the most sense to me as it'd be something I'd consider, a pretty set of characters expressing my desire for yummy food I cannot pronounce. :) These are hilarious, TYVM OP!
I can't believe this video is a year old, I remember when it came out
5:38
Actually, 妖 is also a commonly used term for mythical creatures in China that can turn into beautiful women, usually to seduce and lure men into giving them their soul, with their original form being usually animals. could be understood as a demon or succubus. Most well known ones are probably 狐妖 or 蛇妖, which could roughly be translated to fox succubus or snake succubus.
Yeah, so basically, that man tattooed "toilet succubus" onto himself.
scat man
...kinky..i guess?
@@runeanonymous9760 Skibidibi
妖 can also just mean monster, so toilet monster
@@angsern8455 Ghoulies?
I have asian parents so they naturally made learn mandarin and it's HILARIOUS to see some of these tatoos in person
I thought Mandarin was not widely spoken in Asia outside of China, I never met an Indian or a Russian speaking Mandarin
@@PouLS Maybe this person is from China. China is in Asia
@@PouLS India is a very different type of Asian. Some russians do speak chinese if they live near the chinese border - my mother had chinese speaking classmates in college. Generally, though, the asians of russia are very different nations and ethnicities from chinese
@@PouLS mandarin is really popular didnt you know
@@smarf93 then why not just say he has Chinese parents?
I ran out of oxygen becuse hysterical laugh. Thank you for brightening my day!
3:57 the 3 characters actually means " fugitive ". 躲藏 = hiding / running away. 犯 = ( person committed a crime ).
Toilet Goblin sounds like a children’s book gone wrong
Or an anime
"Mommy, I don't want to use the toilet."
"Why?"
"There's a toilet goblin trying to drag me inside."
"I told you it's only a story, I shouldn't have gotten that _Hairy Tales_ book for you."
七輪 actually does (roughly) mean "seven rings". It just also has other meanings. It'd be like someone getting "7-Eleven" tattooed because their birthday is July 11th.
Also, the Chinese word for ox/bull actually is 公牛. 公 means "public" and 牛 means "cow". These people don't know Chinese, they just put it into Google translate.
I agree with ya there, I just want to add that the lady was probably going for "Ox" because she was born in the year of the ox...in which case she was probably looking for just the 牛 paired with some indicator of "zodiac sign"
公 has multiple meanings. It can mean “public” but it means “male” too.
@@hugohuang1518 it also translate to grandfather but with double 公
It's even better if the person goes to a place where the bate would be said as "11 July" instead, meaning 7/11 will be understood as 7 November ... which is most of the world.
That's why it is best for foreigners to get tattoos in Kana instead of Kanji.
My cousin’s wife has Japanese characters down her arm that translates to, “I have no idea what this means”. She got it on purpose.
That's actually genius. If someone asks her what it means, she can say "I have no idea what this means" and be correct.
@@pyrofromtf2 She always says it's some inspirational line from a Basho poem.
@@redfive5856 oh ok. Like how when my coworker asked me if the earth is round or flat, I said "earth shaped".
3:00 this one actually makes sense, there are actually no L sounds in Japanese, they just get substituted by R sounds. Because of this, it's very possible to wonder if the sound made was supposed to be an L or an R
My grandad got a tattoo while on holiday in the Canary Islands, it was supposed to say “Jackie” in Chinese which is my nan’s name. However we discovered that every Chinese person we asked in Chinatown would do a kung fu pose and shout “JACKIE CHAN”.
That's a win in my book
LOL More of a win than a fail tho
Did it say 成龍？
Honestly that's more of a win than a loss
Did you tell everyone that Jackie Chan was your grandma? 😆
the "use other entrance" one i feel was either deliberate on her part as a dirty joke, or was a dirty joke by the tattoo artist. either way that one is funny
That's what I was thinking as well! Maybe she just has a good sense of humour 😂
my theory is that she saw it written on a sign, assumed it meant something meaningful, took a picture of it, and showed it to the tattoo artist
Where?
@@shanellemurrey9300 other entrance
@@Cheesy_33 thank you mr helpful
Just subscribed to your channel. This was priceless!
This has got to be my favorite video ever.
I'd genuinely find "economic recession" and "beep beep lettuce" to be amazing tattoos.
I work at a tattoo shop as an apprentice. They made me and the other apprentice organize different kinds of tattoo flashes/designs, one of which was Chinese symbols. To make a joke around the idea that people have no clue what they're getting, I drew two fun Chinese symbols on the front of the folder organizing them. When our boss noticed the drawing we were complimented for our "creativity". I wrote the symbols for "butt soup"...
屁股湯 😂😂😂
LMAO
狗暨煎蛋卷🥺
@@HairyJuan 腹瀉餛飩 😁
These are beautiful 🤣
If I was ever going to tattoo foreign letters onto myself, I would probably look up the specific letters beforehand instead of trusting the tattoo parlor to translate for me lol
In the case of asian languages, it might not matter. The same characters can mean different things across multiple languages. You might ask for "courage" in one language and get "gigantic dumbass" in another language or something.
It's weird, but I remember the Japanese used to walk around with shirts in English that were just gibberish. I remember a shirt that read "Hello Mayonnaise" on it. The idea that we would return the favor with Japanese gibberish kind of makes sense.
I hope that one image with a chick wearing a hoodie that just has a bunch of F-bombs printed on it is real.
Hello mayonaise is a perfectly reasonable sentence if its meant to be read by English speaking foreigners in the streets of japan
@@Jokoko2828 Reminds me of a Japanese kids' show called Miburi TV (I think it was a segment on the show that teaches kids exercise?) that featured a woman called Sasuga Minami (the host of said show) wearing a tracksuit with the sentences "I love fuck" and "I love p**sy" on it. And yes, it caused controversy in Japan.
I would unironically wear those
I've seen ones that said "shop lifting" on the shirt.
On one of the last days of school, my Chinese teacher showed us a bunch of these bad tattoos and we translated the ones we knew. Fun times
Yo, I go to a Chinese Language help school on Sundays (During the typical school year) and we did that too, it was hilarious🤣
These are absolutely, and epically- genius!
I've always wanted to get one of these bad tattoos deliberately, but I'm too afraid I'd get it wrong.
2:22 makes sense because 恋 is read as koi(love) and 鯉 is also read as koi(y'know, the fish) so someone must have romanized it before chugging it into kanji
Ahhhh good to know, thanks!
I'd have gone for 愛 anyway since 恋 is more specifically romantic.
love your profile picture
It *is* easier to do that just because of how much English is just a mash of languages
But, I mean CARP
You'd think they'd at least do a google search of "鯉 in english" or something for a tattoo that goes on their body permanently.