tatoo ideas...

cal · Feb 14, 2005

wanted to have some original saying or something...nothing overdone or too cliche,

was thinking of getting some chinese letters on my forearms...not random letters like most end up getting...

wanted to get something in chinese that had the same meaning as nietsche's what doesnt kill you only makes you stronger, would be a little too cliched word for transliterated...but id like to get the same idea...across...

any ideas...

alpha-longhorn · Feb 14, 2005

bro before you get that shit done make sure you run it by me first.. I can read, write and speak chinese fluently..

Let me be the first to warn you about these characters.. Most of the phrases you can think of in English, when translated into chinese, usually reads something really stupid...

SAYINGS are usually not international, so something that sounds good in English, might look really bad in Chinese.. ALso, it's all about caligraphy in Chinese, and the difference between someone who knows how to write it well vs. someone who writes like a 3rd grader is HUGE..

The general rule of thumb for this type of stuff to avoid stupidity is to see how many characters the guy is translating it to.. If it's something short, like "only the strong survive", and the dude is translating it into 5+ pictograms in chinese, that's a bad sign.. The fewer the pictograms, the more weight the phrase carries in chinese..

alpha-longhorn · Feb 14, 2005

ideally, you want something that can be summed up with 1 symbol... That's when it looks best...

Usually phrases don't go over very well since most catchy things you can think of, have no direct translation.. And the tattoo guy you are going to may or may not know Chinese in the depth that you'd like..

Good things to tattoo in chinese would be one word nouns or adjectives... one of the most famous might be "to endure"... many westerners probably have seen this one since it is the "NIN" in NINJA..

sorry to blabber on..

cal · Feb 14, 2005

hey bro

the chinese phrase i found...it was site about chinese proverbs, etc...

is translated into english as

"falling in a ditch makes you wiser"

i knew that transliteration thing was problem...thats why i deced to think of chinese, proverbs, phrases etc...

id rahter have it be like more than one letter for style...

if you know of any chinese proverbs etc...sayings that fit the same idea as the above quote, or the nietcsche like saying...run it by me...please...

im asian, but know less about asian stuff than most asians...

alpha-longhorn · Feb 14, 2005

the reason why it translated back into english sounding dumb is because most chinese proverbs use a lot of metaphors and such rather than English, which usually go for straight and simple...

With most chinese proverbs there's usually a story behind it back in history and most of the time there's a lot of depth behind each word...

let me give you a example... There's a chinese proverb that says

"don't use a bamboo basket to carry water"

A bamboo basket is pretty porous so of course carrying water with it you'd drip it all over the place...

The equivalent phrase in english would be something like "dont' try to kill a fly with an axe" or "dont' cut off the head to stop a nosebleed"

cal · Feb 14, 2005

yes that is why i looked up chinese proverbs, i like the metaphors...

much more subtle than just being super direct...welll help me out if ya can to find something with the meaning im looking for in chinese. i def prefer the metaphor...

thanks.

Dr.X · Feb 14, 2005

Alpha is right - most things don't translate well. Take your time. I got some chinese symbols down my spine a couple months ago and it took a long time and talking to a lot of chinese people before I could get what I wanted without looking like a dumb american that has a tattoo that says something that makes no sense

alpha-longhorn · Feb 14, 2005

"what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"..

is that the phrase you wanted to translate into it's equivalency in chinese?

Is there another option you have in mind in case that one is too difficult to translate?

I'll think about this one.. you think of some other sayings you have in mind

alpha-longhorn · Feb 14, 2005

okay... i have a few in chinese already..

one is "if armies attack, generals defend.. if water flood, sand drown"

sounds kinda dumb in English translated directly, but it's the chinese way of saying

When there's a will, there's a way..

The old generals in China wayyyy back in time fought on horseback and their heroics are passed down in legends and most chinese people today can name off the top of their head at least a dozen or so famous generals from as far back as thousands of years ago.. So basically this proverb is saying something like

"even if you outnumber us 10 to 1, you are fighting with soldiers and we are fighting with heros, so if you come, we find a way to beat u, though there are few of us.. and although a flood is powerful, we have enough sand to drown out the water"

There's another one and I apologize for the long posts...It says

"1 drop of water can penetrate a rock"

This came from some story where a teacher was teaching a student about never giving up..

So the teacher says, "look at the water falling on that rock, do you think a drop of water can penetrate that rock?"

the student says, " no way water can penetrate rock"

the teacher says, "that is not true.. look at the water... although it seems to always bounce off the rock without ever making a dent, it is unwilling to give up and will continue dripping on that rock for an eternity.. Eventually, over hundreds or even thousands of years, 1 of those drops of water will penetrate the rock and come out the other side instead of bouncing off of it"

there you have it... my story tellin' time.. lol... Can't believe I've been here for 14 years and still remember stuff wayyyy back.. And I'm only 23!

cal · Feb 14, 2005

i like the 1 dop of wate can penetate a ock...

my keyboad is messed up...

thanks...

if you come up with any othes tell me ...

James · Feb 14, 2005

I have 4 chinese characters on my forearm that says "The evil never overcomes the good"

Essentially the characters mean "Evil Never Conquers Good" if translated directly.

I had it confirmed by a Chinese gentlemen last summer.

Just a phrase I like and live by, so i got some ink done. Good luck finding something you like.

Just some advice, when getting tattoo's, dont get them too small. My four characters take up my whole forearm, and I'm happy I didnt go any smaller. I've also heard this from all my other friends that have tattoos.

alpha-longhorn · Feb 15, 2005

another chinese story..

some guy walks into a shop.. He sees an old lady sitting down, and she is holding a steel bar in her hand.. She is grinding the bar against a stone, back and forth, back and forth, with sweat dripping down her forehead.. Puzzled, the guy asks, " what are you doing with that steel bar?"... The lady replied, "I'm making a NEEDLE"... To this answer the guy is shocked.. he says, "That is a steel bar, you will NEVER be able to grind it down to the size of a needle".. The lady says, "That is not true.. I will grind away at it year after year if must be, and eventually, all there will remain would be a needle"... The young man thinks the old lady is crazy, but upon further thinking, he finally understood what the old lady is trying to teach him... The idea is that nothing is impossible.. Where there is a will, there is a way..

This story can be tattooed onto your arm in 4 symbols.. And it will say, "steel" "bar" "grind" "needle"...

any knowledgeable person educated in Chinese will imediately understand what your tattoos is trying to represent.. Of course, the american born chinese will look at it and wonder wtf you are talking about because their understanding of the language would be very limited.