Beef Stew

I made this up last night, and I may tweak it at some point, but it was DAMN good, even better the next day.

2 pounds cubed stew meat
1 can family size tomato soup
3 cups water (more or less, whatever your preferred thickness is)
2 tablespoons honey mustard
2 tablespoons crushed garlic (fresh)
6 med. or 5 large potatos (diced)
4 large carrots (cut up)
2 tblsp cilantro
2 tblsp basil
2 tblsp parsley
salt and pepper to taste

In one large pot, combine everything except the meat. bring to a boil, reduce to simmering. While doing this, brown the stew meat over a medium heat (no spices, no oil, nothing, if its good meat it will make its own liquid). You need not worry about it being completely cooked, just browned nicely. Add the stew meat to the boiling soup mix, including all the juices it produces. Cover, simmer for about an hour, or whenever its as thick as you want it and the veggies are cooked. We ate it served with biscuits, and it was damn tasty.

From Finland with Love

Jukka from Finland has emailed these two photos to me from a shop called Tattoo Heka.

The first one is a couple’s tattoo. They had tattoos that say 猴愛狗 (Monkey loves Dog) and vice versa. Assuming Dog and Monkey are their zodiac signs respectively.


http://www.tattooheka.com/kuvia/tribal74.jpg

Unfortunately nobody in the shop, including the clients and the tattooist, has realized that the character for “love” 愛 has been placed upside down.

I have seen the exact same Asian gibberish font used in tattoos twice before, and one of them was in Finland. But, it was too late for this Finnish young man.


http://www.tattooheka.com/kuvia/tribal50.jpg

Evil Angel

This person has posted two tattoos done by Melissa Mesimer of Ghetto Inks in BMEzine’s gallery (June 26th, 2006).

One is called “Evil Angel” and the other is titled “Burning Rain”.


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60626/high/bmepb293004.jpg

Somehow the first character 邪 of 邪惡天使 has been separated into two characters, which are 牙 (tooth) and 阝 (a partial that means looks like an “ear”).

For those who are curious about the striations below the hands in the photo, those are stretch marks. I am not sure if the photos linked above were from a female tattooer or a very large man with gynecomastia.

Jobs Rock.

So, apparently my custom tattoo designs are good enough that Inked Studios out of San Francisco came knocking at my proverbial door the other day, asking if I would like to work for them at $20 an hour. Doing that until I become proficient enough with a needle to ink my designs myself will be a nifty little endeavor.

Apparently, they had seen my DeviantArt account and liked what they saw. I love the fact that my work is getting out there, being seen, and people are liking it enough that they want to buy it, and put it on their skin. Nothing satisfies me more than seeing a good ink job, done with my art.

Te Koop - I Evol You

Jonathan from Toronto has sent in this photo of Te Koop's window.



The red character 愛 is reversed.

Ironic part of this: Te Koop (Dutch phrase means "For Sale"), located on Queen street just east of Spadina, is less than a block away from Toronto's Chinatown.

For those of you think the sign would be correct when viewed from inside of the store.

It reads "愛 I UOY".

Aggressively Smooth

http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60612/high/bmepb286196.jpg
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60612/high/bmepb286194.jpg

This photo dated Jun 12, 2006 in BMEzine’s gallery by ViciousVen (aka. Jimbo according to his stats on BMEzine and MySpace) had this caption:

My Friend Joe
Secong Victim (top tattoo only)
(by ViciousVen)

First of all, I think ViciousVen really meant to say was “second victim” instead of “secong”.

Secondly, why are the orientations of these two characters 猛 and 俐 rotated?

German Teapot with "Asian-Inspired" Gibberish

Reader Lester B. has sent me this photo of a teapot from Germany.



The red text in German says "enjoy your first tea", yet the four "Chinese-looking" or "Asian-inspired" characters are complete gibberish, even when they are read upside down.

Neglectful Svetlyo?

A tattooist named Svetlyo of Eclipse Tattoo in Ruse, Bulgaria, did these two tattoos.


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60612/high/bmepb285141.jpg


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60612/high/bmepb285140.jpg

In both cases, the characters circled in red, 運, 權 and 惑, are missing strokes. I wonder if they were done incorrectly due to tattoo template flaws or a neglectful tattooist.

Advice from Seth MacFarlane

videos: DevilDucky, Google, YouTube, or Windows Media 1.73 MB

At recently 2006 Harvard Class day, the creator of Family Guy and American Dad, Seth MacFarlane, had some simple tips for the new graduates:

Number 1, Don’t get a tattoo of a Chinese character on your fanny if you don’t understand the language. Tattoo removal services are making a killing off people’s stupidity. It’s because little “Miss. Individuality” walks into a tattoo parlor and gets an Asian symbol she thinks it means “spiritual woman”, but then she later finds out it means “sugar substitute”.

Or worse, “crazy diarrhea”.

Videos of Seth MacFarlane's speech in full length can be found on DevilDucky, Google Video and YouTube. Thanks to Jon Rahoi and Gaijin Biker for the tips.

Karma

Since most tattooists in the West are not fluent in Chinese, one would think getting Chinese character tattoo done in Hong Kong would minimize the probability of screwing up.

That logic would be true only if the tattooist has passed primary education level.

It seems at least one tattooist (Gabe of Ace Dragon Tattoo) in Hong Kong can’t be trusted with Chinese character tattoos.


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60605/high/bmepb284466.jpg
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60605/high/bmepb284465.jpg
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60605/high/bmepb284464.jpg
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60605/high/bmepb284463.jpg
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60605/high/bmepb284462.jpg

因果 and 報應 are redundant phrases for “karma”. In the tattoo, left partial of 報 has two extra dots added to 幸, and 應 is missing one or two 亻depending on the font style.

In the karmic fashion, Erika H. has sent in an Engrish tattoo from Japan.


http://www.nicetattoo.co.jp/gallery.html

Update: June 18, 2006 - The owner of the "karma" tattoo, Jessica Lelovic, is upset about seeing her tattoo been commented on this site. She also claims that the two extra dots are added due to the font style (yea, right) and I have violated copyrights of these photos.

Since I have never claimed ownerships of these photos, plus all the photos are linked to their original sources, Lelovic's claim is so pathetic that it would not hold up in any court.

EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, has this to say:

Web Linking Need Not Cause Copyright Liability

So, I would like to make the following clear to Jessica:

1. Don't be stupid and get an incorrect tattoo.
2. Don't post photos of your stupid tattoo on the web to show off, especially third party sites (i.e. MySpace, Friendster, or BMEzine). Depending on these sites' terms and conditions, you may have already waived all your copyrights away once the photos are posted.
3. Don't be a bitch when someone else is mocking your stupid tattoo. Keep a low profile. The bitchier you get, more entertaining it is for everyone else.