Foreign Language Tattoos

msdurden

Hey All,

I want to get a tattoo in one of the following languages: sanskirt, gujarati, arabic, hindi or hebrew.

Everywhere on the web seems to charge for translating words!:eek:

Is any1 aware of a website that doesn't charge for this service? Even a dictionary would do

thanks

el rabitos

is the english language not cool enough for tattooing anymore?

msdurden

ah the english language in writing is just boring!

Gauge

Well it's generally recommended you find someone who SPEAKS the language...

Meaning you should probably be seeking a foreign language resource. Not a tattoo resource.

Just out of curiosity, what are you looking to translate? And why would you get a Hebrew tattoo if you can't speak/read Hebrew? If it's more than one word a dictionary won't cut it, you'll need to be taking grammar into account too.

msdurden

I speak some Hindi, but I can't read it, hence the asking for advise

Also, I've seen a gud few Irish people with foreign language tattoos, thats why I asked here before asking elsewhere

I personally think SOME english words/sentences can be a bit boring as tattoos...i just think the languages below are pretty (typical girly answer I hear you say!)

ugliest

http://www.babblefish.com/babblefish/freetranslation.htm

there's arabic for you at least

simu

Well, be wary. I've seen the translations to Irish some people have gotten online and many have been brutal!

Suzanne0026

http://lexiquetos.ohui.net/nombres-arabe/


Theres arabic!

hot2def

a lot of the arabic, hebrew and sanskrit that westerners decide is pretty is actually calligraphy, as opposed to a plain font or handwriting. perhaps people might consider getting a word they really understand the full meaning and tone of in *english*, but get a calligrapher to draught it for them...

I only go for a language foreign to me if translating the word or phase out of it to english changes the meaning or makes it clumsy....

Will

heres a good example of translating into a language you dont know. This american girl wanted a straight edge tattoo of drug free on her back. fine cool, as you can see it means 'free drugs', if you consider drug'ail an irish word
anyway

Just something t be wary of in my mind. Not saying dont do it, but research it and make damn sure its correct.

The girl would not listen to myself, emmet or this other person i know.

Suppose its done already, not much she can do about it

Gauge

*facepalm* Oh God!

This is another website which I think should be mandatory reading for anyone considering a Chinese/japanese tattoo!

Edit: WTF? Modblog is being ridiculously slow.

Ok wow, after reading that entry, she deserves that crappy tattoo and I hope she gets laughed at everyday for the rest of her life. What a gigantic bitch. OMG THE ONLINE DICTIONARY CLEARLY KNOWS MORE THAN NATIVE IRISH SPEAKERS.

simu

:eek:

amazingemmet

I only realised that thread is still going i'll stick 50quid that she doesn't have any "native irish speaking" friends

Jack B. Badd

I reckon if she does they're taking the piss

It wasn't me!

amazingemmet wrote:

I only realised that thread is still going i'll stick 50quid that she doesn't have any "native irish speaking" friends

Here, to be honest, if she has any friends at all, they don't speak Irish by definition, as that most certainly isn't correct. To be honest, that's the slightly more obscure version of me telling some little Chinese chap he's wrong about my kanji tattoo and what it says, despite the fact that I can't speak the language. Actually, as that's the verb, to drug, which even sounds like a dodgy English approximation to me, doesn't it translater closer to "free to drug"?

Fantasy_Suicide

All I can say to the girl in the pic is:

Sickened!

rannerap

another foreign tatto gone wrong,britney spears wanted mysterious in kanji,and the guy who did was american and had no clue,what she actually got was a tattoo saying strange,and later on she was stupid enough to try get a hebrew one after what happened the first time.The tattoo on the back of her neck that was supposed to mean "new life" in Hebrew was tattooed with the characters out of order,sickner for her!

porn_star

I imagine it happens to a lot more then Britney and it just got picked up on 'cos she's famous.
Whatever about getting a different language, that's not your main speaking one, I can't understand why people would get one that they can't even speak themselves.:rolleyes:

Mental Mickey

A fashion statement, or to look trendy perhaps?

rannerap

i worked with these 3 sisters and the all got their name in chinese on their lower backs with a manky shamrock hanging of it because apparently it looked "cool",it wasnt even translated properly but as near as they could get it,they all had irish names for gods sake!stupid or what

bounty_hunter

Wilburt wrote:

heres a good example of translating into a language you dont know. This american girl wanted a straight edge tattoo of drug free on her back. fine cool, as you can see it means 'free drugs', if you consider drug'ail an irish word
anyway

Just something t be wary of in my mind. Not saying dont do it, but research it and make damn sure its correct.

The girl would not listen to myself, emmet or this other person i know.

Suppose its done already, not much she can do about it

Oh god, that poor girl! How much of an ass would you feel?

Junior

I have Junior done in kanjii on the inside of one of my arms, I spoke to a native Japanese speaker and writer before I got it done. Cool moment last summer was when I got to meet one of my heroes in Japan in Smoky Nagata and he said 'ahhh junior-san' and got some of his mates to see my tattoo

rannerap

at least you researched it unlike some idiots!

adastra

I've got a tattoo in latin. Main reasons I didn't get it in english are that not everyone will automatically know what it says, I like the language, and, well, it just looks nicer in latin than it would in english:)

I realised the other day though that I have the name of a car on my body though....'astra', hehehe.

the demon

check out a web site called da font.com

Aard

A friend got some hanzi tattooed on his arm. I told him it probably didn't say exactly what he thought it did, then he said "doesn't matter; I can't read it anyway". Best argument I've heard. But still, I'd never do that myself.

Fajitas!

That link to the Drug Free thing...

Priceless.

Will

yeah its still going lol

the demon

wow! checked out the "drug free" or "free drugs" link, she says she was checking the translation for two years, anyone know where??? lol:rolleyes:

Will

from her 'irish speaking' friends!

the demon

been chekin the auld gaelic. doesent that mean "get drugs for free"???
anyone??????

amazingemmet

Sort of, closer to free drugs

rannerap

at least she doesnt have to look at it i guess:D

the demon

i wonder does she have a queue of junkies following her waitin for the handouts?

r3nu4l

Seeing as how this is all going, David BEckham has a tattoo in Sanskrit (I think) that is supposed to say 'Victoria' but somewhere along the line someone got mixed up or mis-spelt the word so it doesn't actually mean anything at all.

Now if a guy that wealthy, with a team of employees to look after him can't get it right what hope is there for anyone else?

OP, just be very, very careful, even your friends could take the piss. Years ago I remember thinking it was funny yo teach an American friend of mine that 'Tiocfaidh ár lá' was the Irish for 'Thank you very much' . The guy was in and out of every shop in Dublin shouting 'Tiocfaidh ár lá' at sales assistants and even a Garda who gave him directions when he got lost Wasn't so funny then!

Gauge

Oh man... my friend just told me she messaged a girl on Myspace with a tattoo that said Drug'ail Saor! Kind of feel sorry for her now... the whole country is laughing at her... ouch!

Degsy

A freind of mine returned from viet-nam with a henna tattoo that became infected and left a scar.he was told it meant "tiger" but later found out from a vietnamese bloke in a shop that it actaully meant "pig".he was lucky on a couple of counts...

Junior

How does a Henna Tattoo become infected ?

Degsy

Junior wrote:

How does a Henna Tattoo become infected ?

If they use a metallic black hair dye instead of real henna which is brown and doesnt look as cool.A lot of people are allergic to it and it becomes a big scabby,swollen mess.

Reality check

I agree with Gauge-that American chick getting an Irish tatto is a KNOBHEAD and deserves to have the piss taken out of her. Who takes themselves that seriously that they dont do the research? UH-A TATTOO DOESNT COME OFF! I dont know why people want to get tattoo's in other languages that mean nothing to them anyway. Why would you want a japanese tattoo of you have no japanese heritage? that makes no sense to me and personally If I was of the foreign culture who's tattoo someone had decided to implant on their body because they thought it was cool-I'd be insulted. Luckily for this American girl-the Irish will just laugh.

Reku

Well at least Daiyne (the girl with the terrible tat) realises it's wrong, and hopefully that she's a twit for:
(a) getting a tattoo in a language she knows nothing about and has no connections to.
(b) not putting much research into the meaning of what she was getting done so as to at least make sure it was correct.

A stupid Yank getting a tattoo in Irish because they think it makes it cooler... and people on AH wonder why many feel those in the US have some daft obsession with Ireland and desire to claim some connection to Ireland. Dear, oh dear....

The_Scary_Man

Her biggest mistake was putting it up on the 'net. How many people in the States would have even known it was wrong? If she was at least allowed to believe that the tattoo was a proper translation she would have happily gone on through her life thinking she had something cool on her.

Why would someone get "Drug Free" tattooed on them anyway? I know everybody has their own reason's for getting tats but to get a tattoo to represent what you're not seems a bit strange to me. That could end up being a fairly long list hehe.

Unless she had been a user and then stopped, that would make sense I suppose.

hmmmm......

Gauge

farohar wrote:

Well at least Daiyne (the girl with the terrible tat) realises it's wrong, and hopefully that she's a twit for:
(a) getting a tattoo in a language she knows nothing about and has no connections to.
(b) not putting much research into the meaning of what she was getting done so as to at least make sure it was correct.

A stupid Yank getting a tattoo in Irish because they think it makes it cooler... and people on AH wonder why many feel those in the US have some daft obsession with Ireland and desire to claim some connection to Ireland. Dear, oh dear....

She knows it's wrong but she still doesn't care. Oh, and according to her IAM page, she's looking to get her name changed to an Irish- pardon me, Gaelic version. Ugh.

bounty_hunter

This still makes me laugh What an ass.

Reku

Gauge wrote:

She knows it's wrong but she still doesn't care. Oh, and according to her IAM page, she's looking to get her name changed to an Irish- pardon me, Gaelic version. Ugh.

There's a great phrase people use for people who do these things...

what was it again...

oh yeah!

Stupid American!:D

Gauge

I know this is kind of off topic, but it reminds me of people and their random kanji tattoos: 'Yeah, this means 'Strength'. Isn't it cooool?' In addition to offering free drugs, she has a whole bunch of other random symbols tattooed. And they all have MEANINGS!:



This is the symbol for 'rebirth'. Not to be confused with the symbol for 'spiral'. Just like her Free Drugs tattoo, I'm sure her Irish friends are intimately familiar with Megalithic symbolism as they are with the 'Gaelic' language.



A 'Triskelle [sic]'. It means reincarnation. Got it? The Celts told her so. Reincarnation.



And here we have a celtic symbol for 'half hearted celtic knot.' Oh wait, family. If you say so. Apparently she has 'Teaghlach' tattooed as well, which isn't strictly incorrect but there's something about 'celebrating your heritage by feeding words into an online dictionary and then tattooing them' that just seems a bit... meh.

I'm a mean bitch but her attitude in the modblog post annoyed the hell out of me.

Crumble Froo

farohar wrote:

There's a great phrase people use for people who do these things...

what was it again...

oh yeah!

Stupid American!:D

reminds me of an online mate of mine in america (texas/colorado) who intends getting 'stupid american' tattood on him in japanese

he's researched it, and come up with the correct symbols, and we've since had this really cool japanese chick join the boards, so she's confirmed it for him, and given him a colloquial alternative

Star Lord

Gauge wrote:

I'm a mean bitch but her attitude in the modblog post annoyed the hell out of me.

Not at all, she's a tard, plain and simple!

rannerap

why is it always the Americans who get stupid irish tattoos:rolleyes:

Will

i feel sorta bad for posting the link and pic here....sorta

spurious

Reality check wrote:

Luckily for this American girl-the Irish will just laugh.

Luckily for her most of the Irish won't know it's wrong.