I Always Suspected That Does Not Mean What You Think it Does. I Was Right!
Last night as I was scrolling through the FML app for Android, I came across one posted by a woman who had just been informed that the Chinese character for "strength" she had tattooed on her lower back actually translated to "slut". I couldn't help but LOL. As if to justify my long-held suspicions about Chinese character tattoos, their ridiculous popularity, and their true meaning, an article on the rising trend in tattoo removal was featured on Boston.com today as well - and one of those interviewed had a Chinese character removed from ankle also discovered it's true meaning not long ago. What she thought meant "warrior and scholar" actually translated to "mud-pie".
I have two tattoos, one of which vaguely annoys me; the other I forget about as I never see it. But I remember that when I got these (age 16 and 18 respectively), it was unheard of outside of the Harley Hag community for females to get tattoos, especially large ones.
Then...something happened to my generation. Grunge. I hated the movement then, I hate the reflections on the movement now. I wasn't sad in the least when Kurt Cobain died - I only wished he'd taken Courtney Love with him. Nirvana was like nails on a chalkboard to me. Flannel was a bastardization of my beloved Mighty Mighty Bosstones habit of living plaid. Of course, this is when they were still actually in Boston it was that long ago now...
And tattoos. ZOMG tattoos. Everyone got tattoos. Females viewed it as some sort of liberation at the time - a time when femini-nazism was en vogue for "womyn" and men were out in forests, banging on bongos, trying to find their inner vaginas.
The 90's came and (thankfully) wentm but tattoos remained. The late 90's and early 2000's saw women start shaving and wearing makeup again - Gloria Steinem was out and Paris Hilton came in. The men returned from the forests looking rather sheepish, cut their hair, and drank kegs of Budweiser as if nothing had ever happened. All of them claimed to be at an aunt's house in Wyoming at the time.
Yet...tattoos remained. Jesse James happened. Pin ups happened. Suicide Girls (God I still wish they'd all just do as their name implies already) happened. A bizarrely bastardized modern ressurection of punk rock occurred - without the punk, or, for that matter, the rock. But I digress.
And one day I realized that I've been seein' a whole lotta cracker-assed suburban-bred cheerleader cum eco-intelligentsia-warrior types (with an eye always toward makeup and fashion) sporting Asian symbol tattoos.
And I thought, "I wonder what that actually means." I asked a few acquaintances who succumbed to the trend and got your basic litany of virtues: truth, strength, honor, integrity.
Permanent talismans in uncertain times.
And yet I still thought, "I wonder what that really says?"
Friends and I even joked about it from time to time: "I bet it means, 'I fuck sheep!'" LOLOLOL etcetera etc.
Now, as my generation and that generation hot on my heels enter the workforce, they're not feeling so warrior-like these days. Tattoo removal is a booming industry for lots of reasons if Boston.com is to be believed - and those of us who still have our ink tend to shake our heads quietly because let's face it: you could see it coming a mile and a half away when the trend really took off. Idiot sorority girls especially getting bellybuttons pierced, tramp stamps tattooed...it wasn't thought out or thought through.
The best and most brilliant part: No one ever bothered to get their Chinese characters translated FIRST before having them inked on.
As for me and my tattoos, I've occasionally thought of getting the one on my arm covered up with something else, but...it's a part of me. The article cited did note that a lot of people are removing art because it's who they were not who they are now. Well, the one on my arm was my first at age 16. Even then I knew that what it meant then might not be pertinent or important or anything at all in 10 or 20 years.
I was right. It's not. It annoys me because most people can't sort out what it actually is either - but when I look at it now, I remember saying to Slammy as he was doing it, "Even if it's meaningless when I'm 30 [remember, I was only 16], at least I'll be able to look at it and remember myself."
So, it will never be covered up. It's a tribute now to what I went through to get to where I am; a memory of my own old Boston; a symbol of strength and courage.
My symbol of strength and courage? I can guarantee you it does NOT translate to, "Your mother smells like a monkey's crotch."
To all of those Suicide Girls and intellectual warriors out there? I will be cold, hard, cash money that yours probably does. The LULZ? Keep 'em coming. Please. :P
I have two tattoos, one of which vaguely annoys me; the other I forget about as I never see it. But I remember that when I got these (age 16 and 18 respectively), it was unheard of outside of the Harley Hag community for females to get tattoos, especially large ones.
Then...something happened to my generation. Grunge. I hated the movement then, I hate the reflections on the movement now. I wasn't sad in the least when Kurt Cobain died - I only wished he'd taken Courtney Love with him. Nirvana was like nails on a chalkboard to me. Flannel was a bastardization of my beloved Mighty Mighty Bosstones habit of living plaid. Of course, this is when they were still actually in Boston it was that long ago now...
And tattoos. ZOMG tattoos. Everyone got tattoos. Females viewed it as some sort of liberation at the time - a time when femini-nazism was en vogue for "womyn" and men were out in forests, banging on bongos, trying to find their inner vaginas.
The 90's came and (thankfully) wentm but tattoos remained. The late 90's and early 2000's saw women start shaving and wearing makeup again - Gloria Steinem was out and Paris Hilton came in. The men returned from the forests looking rather sheepish, cut their hair, and drank kegs of Budweiser as if nothing had ever happened. All of them claimed to be at an aunt's house in Wyoming at the time.
Yet...tattoos remained. Jesse James happened. Pin ups happened. Suicide Girls (God I still wish they'd all just do as their name implies already) happened. A bizarrely bastardized modern ressurection of punk rock occurred - without the punk, or, for that matter, the rock. But I digress.
And one day I realized that I've been seein' a whole lotta cracker-assed suburban-bred cheerleader cum eco-intelligentsia-warrior types (with an eye always toward makeup and fashion) sporting Asian symbol tattoos.
And I thought, "I wonder what that actually means." I asked a few acquaintances who succumbed to the trend and got your basic litany of virtues: truth, strength, honor, integrity.
Permanent talismans in uncertain times.
And yet I still thought, "I wonder what that really says?"
Friends and I even joked about it from time to time: "I bet it means, 'I fuck sheep!'" LOLOLOL etcetera etc.
Now, as my generation and that generation hot on my heels enter the workforce, they're not feeling so warrior-like these days. Tattoo removal is a booming industry for lots of reasons if Boston.com is to be believed - and those of us who still have our ink tend to shake our heads quietly because let's face it: you could see it coming a mile and a half away when the trend really took off. Idiot sorority girls especially getting bellybuttons pierced, tramp stamps tattooed...it wasn't thought out or thought through.
The best and most brilliant part: No one ever bothered to get their Chinese characters translated FIRST before having them inked on.
As for me and my tattoos, I've occasionally thought of getting the one on my arm covered up with something else, but...it's a part of me. The article cited did note that a lot of people are removing art because it's who they were not who they are now. Well, the one on my arm was my first at age 16. Even then I knew that what it meant then might not be pertinent or important or anything at all in 10 or 20 years.
I was right. It's not. It annoys me because most people can't sort out what it actually is either - but when I look at it now, I remember saying to Slammy as he was doing it, "Even if it's meaningless when I'm 30 [remember, I was only 16], at least I'll be able to look at it and remember myself."
So, it will never be covered up. It's a tribute now to what I went through to get to where I am; a memory of my own old Boston; a symbol of strength and courage.
My symbol of strength and courage? I can guarantee you it does NOT translate to, "Your mother smells like a monkey's crotch."
To all of those Suicide Girls and intellectual warriors out there? I will be cold, hard, cash money that yours probably does. The LULZ? Keep 'em coming. Please. :P