Mirrored Freedom
Elena has emailed me these two photos being displayed in a tattoo parlor in Spain. Obviously no one at the shop has realized the photos are shown mirrored.
Let’s hope these are just photograph errors and the actual tattoos were done correctly.
自由 "Freedom"
http://flickr.com/photos/girlinblack/102253072/
I don't know what 喬瓦尼 is, but it could be someone's name.
http://flickr.com/photos/girlinblack/102253054/
Let’s hope these are just photograph errors and the actual tattoos were done correctly.
自由 "Freedom"
http://flickr.com/photos/girlinblack/102253072/
I don't know what 喬瓦尼 is, but it could be someone's name.
http://flickr.com/photos/girlinblack/102253054/
posted by tian at
6:42 PM
17 Comments:
Is the owner Italian? This seems to be a reasonable transliteration of the name "Giovanni"
Qiao2wa3hao3. Lofty tile nun. Well, it is a bit Sistine-ish. Perhaps the tattooee was an Italian gentleman passing through Spain ...
"Giovanni" is 吉奥万尼.
That's got to be one of the ugliest 自 I've ever seen, even without mirroring!
Haha, I love these.
I went home to England last summer, and saw a guy in the supermarket with his shirt off, and 沙拉 in huge characters across his shoulder! He was pretty big, so I didn't take a photo!
Dan
Why so stupid westerners have to abuse such a beautiful language?
www.engrish.com
For this reason.
Anonymous: while I agree westerners often abuse/butcher hanzi/kanji, easterners also abuse/butcher western languages - witness engrish.com.
There is a link to Engrish.com under links section on Hanzi Smatter.
Also, Engrish.com has a link to here.
The stuff on Engrish.com are just t-shirts and signs. Those can easily be replaced, but tattoos are painful and permanent.
I don't think the photos themselves are mirrored, unfortunately. From the direction of the arm in the second one, it appears that the tattoo was actually applied mirrored. Yikes!
Hanzi tatoos may be more permanent, but Engrish is much more prominent. It's found in abundance, in places attempting to be "formal" or "official", and more importantly -- it is often actually making an attempt to communicate something.
I also question whether or not Chinese is a "beautiful" language. Is English NOT a "beautiful" language? ...or would you only think this because you speak it? On pure aesthetics alone, I can understand how Chinese writing could be considered "beautiful", but the simplified Chinese characters pretty much butcher that theory.
Andrew
I personally agree with Andrew on Simplified Chinese characters have butchered the aesthetics side of Chinese, and that is why I use the Traditional version.
It looks to me like that first one is supposed to be 身由 (backwards), not 自由. Even though 自由 is a word I know and 身由 looks quite wrong.
I don't know any Chinese or Japanese, so I can't say anything about that, but I can tell you that the second photo is not an accidental photographical reversal. The tendon on the wrist wouldn't be right if it was reversed. If you look at your own arm, you'll notice that the tendon is closest to the outside of the arm when you hold them palms-up,like his is. He's just got backwards characters on his left arm.
I am a professional tattoo artist, and have been for 20 years now. I am Caucasian and I am not literate in any Asian language. You would NOT believe how many westerners come into my studio asking for an example of the Japanese "alphabet" so they can get their name written in "Kanji". Or people who come from a Chinese restaurant with a scrap of napkin with hastily written Asian characters in ball-point pen and think that I can translate that into properly calligraphied writing. I have had people get angry with me because I don't have any "Kanji" on my walls. For the last 5 years I have had clients sign a waiver holding me harmless if they want any sort of Asian characters. It states that I do not guarantee the meaning of any foreign language that they choose to have me tattoo on them. I try to talk them out of it, but if they insist, I will take their money.
The second could be a mirrored picture. The tendon on the wrist would still be closest to the outside of the arm if this was tatooed on the right arm. Just flip the picture in photoshop and you will see a perfectly normal right arm. The body is symmetrical, mirrored along the central axis, any mirrored body part will make perfect sense.
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