• Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    17 days ago

    Unfortunately, it’s been dead for a couple of years now, but this blog used to translate everyone’s Asian-language tattoos.

    A significant number of them use characters that are not from any language at all.

    Quite a few that do have meanings are pretty funny, sometimes are quite ironic too.

    https://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/

    Edit: I forgot about this, but it’s still on the front page of that blog and I laughed all over again.

      • jcg@halubilo.social
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        17 days ago

        Seems like it. I suppose it’s an honest mistake to make, she (or her PR team) put the Kanji for “seven” and “ring” (but also more generally means circular or loop or wheel), but Kanji when combined doesn’t always mean what you’d expect it to mean. In this case those two Kanji together is a noun meaning charcoal grill. Kanji combinations can be highly logical, where their standalone meanings come together to a very sensible combined meaning. But sometimes they don’t make much sense and the reasoning for the combined meaning is lost to time.

        But come on, man… Just search for it online or open a dictionary before you permanently write something on your body.

        • aivoton@sopuli.xyz
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          16 days ago

          It’s bit of both. 七輪 can mean seven rings, but more often it refers to the grill. Just as 五輪 can mean 5 rings, but it also means the olympics.