Quote:
Originally Posted by jesselt
I don't understand why so many people are concerned with "protecting" these individuals from getting Kanji Tattoos. It's their choice and I doubt anyone has ever changed their mind because of what people here have said; the least we should do is give them a proper translation and explain why we think it is a bad idea or why the translation may not make sense. I'm sure these people just leave here and look elsewhere for a translation that may or may not even be correct.
More importantly, it is scary how quickly people attack the OP in these threads. We know absolutely nothing about this person and have no reason to make judgments against them; perhaps her Father was Japanese or maybe had some other connection to Japan. She obviously doesn't live in Japan, so it is pretty irrelevant what Japanese people would think of her tattoo (though still worth mentioning in case she goes to Japan.)
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Actually several people have changed their minds after things that I have said. A tattoo is not a t-shirt or even a piercing. It is a message, and if the message will not be conveyed correctly or has another meaning in a foreign language, then the person getting that message permanently inked on their body deserves to know that.
Someone recently asked about getting "Live for today" in Japanese on her body. I could have just given her the translation, but instead told her that phrase inked on your body reads like a deathwish "I want to only live today". It gets tricky when you try to "translate" cultural ideals into different languages because it is RARE that it means the intended meaning, especially when it comes to Japanese and other especially foreign languages from English.