hack0si's Tattoo

An anonymous tip has led me to hack0si's tattoo in www.rankmytattoos.com.

Photo has been removed on behalf of owner's request, original is located here:
http://www.rankmytattoos.com/Oregon/Eugene/11512.html

Under tattoo design details, it says:

100% freehand work done by Adam Lunt of Eugene Oregon. About 3 hours, one smoke break, and a few days of the lovely stinging sensation that reminds me my newest piece of art is healing. I would like the Kanji rated, and how the color contrasts the black, since my skin is pale and a perfect palette. PEACE

However, one commenter named "Bob" has summed up the whole thing in the following:

Well... This is supposed to read 善惡, "zen'aku," or "good and evil." There are mistakes in the way both of them are written, but the big problem with this tattoo is that the first character is upside-down. Sorry. And there's really no way to fix that. And the sadder thing is, you probably can't even sue. A skilled artist might be able to do a cover up....

"Beware of the Bull Rat"

Two of BMEzine's May 21st entries were from "Lil Miss Strange" with the caption of

"First Tattoo I Did On Someone Wo Is Neither Me Or Family And Doesnt Do It As A Joke
Good I Was Scared But The Guy Is Happy With It!
(Turnhout, Belgium)"

http://www.bmeink.com/A70521/high/bmepb523679.jpg
http://www.bmeink.com/A70521/high/bmepb523678.jpg

By a strange coincidence, the tattooed phrase 畏牯鼠 means "beware of the bull rat".

We should all thank this young man for doing a public service announcement with his flesh.

Dice-K Dictionary

My friend Mark of pinyin.info sent me an article titled "Dice-K Dictionary" in recent issue of The Phoenix, an alternative newspaper in Boston area.

The article pointed out due to the popularity of Japanese baseball player Daisuke Matsuzaka (松坂 大輔), joining Boston Red Sox, many signs with Japanese have been spawning up around Boston area.

The article's author, Mike Miliard, contacted Momo Shinzawa, a fine-art photographer from Tokyo to help translate some of these signs.

In one of their examples,


http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid40133.aspx (114KB pdf)

Shinzawa said:

“Oh, this is really good one! The first three letters says ‘Red Sox’ (literately means ‘Red color sox’) which is kind of okay, but everybody knows Red Sox as Red Sox. You know what I mean? We pronounce and used the name of the team just like Bostonian, so this is kind of funny. On top of it, I think they try to say “Red Sox Fans” but, the last two letters literately means ‘an army corps,’ not ‘fan.’ I can see this sign was made by someone who speak Chinese, maybe? Who can not write [Japanese characters] Hiragana and katakana. When we use foreign words, we use Katakana. So the word ‘Red Sox’ or ‘fan’ should be all Katakana, not in Chinese letters. So this is my suspicious. Yeah, it is kind of No, No to call Japanese ‘An Army corps of red color sox?!’ Since [the Japanese were] Americans enemies long time ago!? I found this sign kind of funny! If Japanese see it, they can understand what they are trying to say. It is almost there, but not right Japanese.”

Actually if the characters shown above are be read as Chinese, it would translate as "Army group under red/bare boots". 赤 could be translated as either "red" or "bare" depending on the context.

The correct Chinese translation for Boston Red Sox is 波士頓紅襪(隊).