White-out won't help here

Ever wondered what those Chinese lettered tattoos really mean? There are a few websites out there who translate these things for inquisitive tattooed individuals.



At Hanzi Smatters some of the questions and answers can be rather interesting:

from: David L.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 12:11 PM
subject: tattoo meaning

Hi, I'm called David Lopez.

I'm from Barcelona and I would like to know that it means a tattoo that I did to myself years ago.
I believe that it is Chinese and though I did it for aesthetics, now I am afraid of taking a meaning that I don't want.

My girlfriend and I would have a lot of interest to know the real meaning of my tattoo.

Thank you very much in advance. You will be of great help!

David


賈 means "buy/trade", 路 means "road, path", 卡 means "card".

賈路卡 sounds like a type of prepaid card that allows its owner to access public transportation. Typically it is called 乗車券 定期券 (short for 定期乗車券) in Japan and 月票 in China.

Some readers suggested this could be translation of "Jeanluc", but that is not correct. Jeanluc is 吉魯克.


Laugh? I nearly fainted.

kthanxbai!

Related articles by Zemanta

• English Tattoos All the Rage in China (languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu)
• US firm to build tattoo-removal empire (guardian.co.uk)
• Food tattoos: tasty or tragic? (guardian.co.uk)