Nine Art Liberty Jade

I sure hope these characters have significant meaning to the owner and he did not pick them randomly.

At first I had trouble to realize it was 自由 due to the poor quality of 由. I thought it was "自生" which means "growing wild/native" in Japanese.

Adam has commented that it is not 九 but a poorly miswritten simplify version of 龍, which is 龙.

九 = nine

艺 (traditional version: 藝) = art; talent, ability; craft
术 (traditional version: 術) = skill, art; method; trick, device

艺术 (traditional version: 藝術) = art

自 = self, private, personal; from
由 = cause, reason; from

自由 = freedom; free; liberty

玉 = jade, precious stone, gem

"Crazy Diarrhea" Has A Name-O

Ms. Naomi Chaney has sent in the following photos to verify the "Crazy Diarrhea" tattoo was indeed belongs to her.

* Photo(s) have been removed on behalf of Ms. Naomi Chaney's (owner of the "crazy diarrhea" tattoo) Request *

In an email statement to me, she said:

I am the author of the anon. note and the owner of the tattoo. I am assuring you that it was intentional.

I wanted to get some stupid tattoo in kanji that meant something totally outrageous. It was my own way of making fun of people that get stupid kanji tattoos but at leastｔ I meant for mine to happen.

It is kind of fun being famous for my silly tattoo.

This is actually some sort of friendship tattoo. My friend has 'liquor' and 'anus' tattooed on her. Though I'm not sure if she ever got them read to see if they were right.

Naomi (nachaney@earthlink.net)"

That Bad Tattoo Guy

Phoenix radio station 103.9 FM The Edge has made a reference to bad tattoos this morning:

"Japanese symbol that guy, you are all included too, don't think you are not. Unless you have spent time in Tokyo, you have no need to link yourself to its culture. After all, When is the last time you see a Japanese dude with 'Brave' written in English across his ankle?"

clip: badtattoo.mp3

(thanks to Elizabeth for the tip)

"The Mother Ten Thing Are Expensive"

Via Flickr, I saw this photo with caption of "Cindy, a beautiful canvas". I wish I could say the same about the artist, but unfortunately the mistakes are so obvious.

The first character 母 is correct and means "mother".

The second one, I am not sure if it was suppose be a Christian cross, 十 means "ten" with four sparkling flares, or 米 means "rice" which also phonetically translated as America in Japanese.

The third one is a mistake. The character 物 is vertically mirrored. When written correctly, 物 means "thing, substance, creature".

The last character 貴 means "expensive, costly, valuable".

Even if all the characters are correctly tattooed, the translation would still be:

"The Mother Ten Things Are Expensive"

What does that mean exactly?

Update: Todd thinks this tattoo means "Expensive American Malt Liquor":

It is 母米物貴. "母米" is from "酒母米", as in "American malt liquor". The whole thing means "expensive american malt liquor".

Could anyone verify this?

"Crazy Diarrhea", The Legend Continues

* Photo(s) have been removed on behalf of Ms. Naomi Chaney's (owner of the "crazy diarrhea" tattoo) Request *

The original can be viewed at BMEzine.com: http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A50210/high/bmegl019014.jpg

In October 14, 2004, when I first saw this tattoo, I was stunned and speechless. It literally means "crazy diarrhea" in both Chinese Hanzi and Japanese Kanji.

狂 = crazy
瀉 = to flow out, diarrhea

One comment from the supposely owner of the tattoo (he/she submitted the comment anonymously and there is no confirmation) claimed that:

"I knew pretty much what it meant and got it as a joke to people who get stupid shit tattooed onthemselves without knowing what it was. Though yes I thought it meant violent diarrhea, crazy diarrhea isn't too far off. I had help from an asian friend of mine to pick this out."

I wonder if this is the same person, or there has been a "crazy diarrhea" cult spawned.

"Extremely Military Affairs Stopping"

The first top two "characters" are just partial radicals, which have no significant meanings. The next three are random characters:

極 = extreme, utmost, furthest, final
武 = military; martial, warlike
止 = stop, halt, desist; detain

In other words, the tattoo is complete gibberish.

"The Fiercest Calm I've Been In" Ring

The line of "You are the fiercest calm I've been in" is from Tori Amos' song "Concertina".



However, the Chinese characters on the outer surface of this ring are random phrases, and the same ring showed up on another page with different inner engraving.



灵感 = inspiration

幸 = fortunate; lucky

厚 = thick; substantial; greatly

媚愛 = flattering love

姁 = chatter like old woman; cheerful; beauty

情慾 = passion