There are various jokes about people getting tattoos of Chinese characters only to find out later they mean something entirely unexpected.The appeal of a foreign character tattoo makes some sense to me. It's not instantly decipherable to most people in the US (forgetting for a minute that nearly 1/6 of the world's population can read Chinese). "Mother" or even "Semper Fi" convey instant meaning.
But strength written in Chinese script provides a little bit of intrigue. Hey! What does that mean?
I suppose it also provides that sense of public privacy that's all the rage. Like posting a private tweet about your bowel movements.
My Chinese class has a native helper, Jia Jun, that I took to a Rockies game on Tuesday. We drank baishi kele (Pepsi, he's only 19) in the Rockpile while I explained the little that I know of baseball rules and he taught me how to shout "Bendan!" (literally, "dumb egg") after a bad call.
Sometime in the 7th inning some girls from the nosebleeds made their way down to the end of our row. I noticed that one of them had Chinese characters tattooed on her inner wrist.
We're studying nationality in class right now. I'd just learned that the word for "American" is mei guo ren (美国人) which literally means "beautiful land person."
Mei ren must mean beautiful person. "Beauty," Jia Jun corrected me.
He laughed and said the Chinese generally consider it weird that people get Han characters tattooed. He removed the pocket translator from his backpack and began thumbing furiously. "There aren't many people in China with tattoos of English words."
Smiling, he handed the translator to me and asked if I knew the English word that was on screen.
That word: Narcissist.
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