I'm finding myself in the situation that a lot of people who don't THINK before they DO something often do. I have several Mandarin symbols tattooed on my back...I think. Now I'm pretty certain most, if not all, of them are wrong. I'm attaching a picture. Can you tell me what they mean?
They are supposed to be three separate tattoos. The top two symbols are supposed to be one tattoo. The middle is supposed to be my Chinese zodiac, and the bottom is supposed to be the name of my cat. What do they actually say?
I also paid to have the proverb, "if we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed" translated so I could have this tattooed on my arm. I was sent back 8 characters. Does this sound right? I hope so, because it's already tattooed!
Jessica is my favorite American name! Well, there was this lovely girl called Jessica L A, I met her in Chinese class and we said hi and just kept talking ...oops sorry, i seem a little carried away lol
OK, let's talk about your tattoos.
The two characters on top don't make any sense to me...what did the tatto shop tell you they mean? The first character alone can mean "inside, inner, internal" and etc. The second one can mean "disappointed, upset, annoyed, lost, regret, distracted" and etc. I've never heard or seen them put together, in modern language at least.
The third character from the top is "snake". You know, there are 12 Chinese zodiac appearing in a 12 years' cycle. People are given a zodiac according to their year of birth in Lunar Calendar, which often starts one or two months later than Gregorian Calendar. So roughly, if you were born in 1977, 1989 or 2001 (i take it that you can't be older nor younger than born in these years, can you?), you got the right one tattooed.
Let's see the last one. It's the character for "livestock" or "domestic animals" such as cattle. I am curious what your cat is actually called.
As for the 8 characters on your arm, would you send me a pic so that i can decide if they are correct?
My email is also available for you if you prefer. it's fall4her[at]gmail.com (pls replace [at] with @).
Please feel free to fire away.
Sincerely,
John
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I'm sorrow, I just sent you a follow up regarding a Chinese proverb I had tattooed on my shoulder but forgot to attach the picture!
Answer Hi Jessica,
The good news is, after you explained these tattoos, they make much more sense now.
The first one "Nei4 Chang4", if interpreted in a poetic way, do have the meaning of "despair within". So i think you can keep it.
The name of your cat "Chu4", if i may, first sounds weird, I mean it would be the last thing Chinese would call their cats. But since you call your cat "animal", i can't think of any better one for that.
The 8 characters' proverb is surprisingly well translated IMHO. the first four characters are a proverb/idiom that can date back to Tang dynasty and is still used, meaning "to refuse to realize one's errors". The latter four means "to come back after a vain attempt" and I personally think they not as good as the first four but still tolerable. Although they don't exactly match the meaning you wanted, they are pretty close, and Chinese people like four-letter proverb/idiom a lot.
I hope that helps. You're welcome to follow up if you have further questions.
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