http://asia.elliottback.com/archives/2005/05/06/bad-chinese-tattoos/
Reader Elliott Back emails:
"My girlfriend and I were at Cornell University's Slope Day today, and they were offering airbrushed tattoos, some of which were in Chinese. Of course, she told me that half the descriptions didn't match the characters at all. I'm a longtime reader of your blog, so I snapped a photo so I could send it to you. Thanks."
The character labeled 34 appears to be a poorly written 孚, which means "trust", but it also means "brood over eggs; have confidence". The bottom partial should be 子, not 于.
#35 美 means "beauty", not "hope" as the caption says.
I have never seen "peace" written like #40 before. I don't know if it could be 安 because it is written so badly.
#39 真 means "real, actual, true, genuine", not "hope".
My personal favorites are #38 and #41. That is because the person did not even bother to remove the horizontal bars above the characters. The bars used by the template's manufacturer to indicate "this way up" on the package.
#38 is the same as #35 which means "beauty" despite the misleading captions. I have seen #41 妥 before and it was featured here in Hanzi Smatter last October. When will these idiots ever learn...
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