Friday, April 07, 2006

Get a Tattoo in a Foreign Language

New York Times did a cool piece on tattoos in foreign languages (mostly Chinese) that don't translate into what the person actually meant and wanted.
Britney Spears wanted "mysterious" she got "strange." I can sort of see that.
Marquis Daniels, of the Dallas Mavericks, thought he was getting his initials in Chinese characters but what his arm actually says is "healthy woman roof."
Similarly, Shawn Marion of the Phoenix Suns was under the impression that his nickname, "the Matrix," was tattooed on his leg, but Mr. Tang says the inscription translates as something like "demon bird moth balls."

2 comments:

Mike said...

I believe there are a few other NBA players that got screwed. Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin come to mind.

Paul said...

Martin's tattoo is supposed to mean "never satisfied" but according to Yao it means "indecisive" or "not aggressive."