• undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I knew a guy who had “bad to the bone” written on his neck in Chinese. The problem is, the phrase doesn’t translate at all.

    So, his tattoo read as “my bones are bad”

    Tbf, he was a clown and had something like that coming.

    • 😈MedicPig🐷BabySaver😈@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Mine is similar. On my forearm,not my neck (yuck). It’s supposed to be “blood and guts”. Literal translation equals something about “inside organs”.

      I’m okay with that. If you actually discuss the meaning of it works out fine.

      I got that tattoo because I actually work with “blood and guts” as a Paramedic.

    • Unbecredible@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Not his fault, that’s just a mean or ignorant tatooist. Why wouldn’t they just do a literal word for word translation if there’s no equivalent phrase in Chinese?

      Like if the phrase “great to the neck” has some special meaning in Chinese but not English, you can still write the english words “great to the neck” on someone’s skin.