• StoneyDcrew@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1232·
    21 days ago

    Sure “WATER” looks dull if written in boring Arial 10 font with caps lock, but if you add a bit of pizzazz it would look fine as a tattoo. Esp. If you are a non-English speaker.

    𝓦𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓻

    𝖂𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖗

    𝕎𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕣

    • ylph@lemmy.world
      74·
      21 days ago

      So many Chinese character tattoos are done in the Chinese equivalent of boring Arial 10 font though, that’s part of the point. The one in the photo is at least hand written, but by someone with poor aesthetic sense, it still looks dull and ugly.

        • ylph@lemmy.world
          19·
          21 days ago

          There are different Chinese fonts (in print/computer context) and also different Chinese historical scripts, each with different styles of writing, and finally a very diverse variety of calligraphy styles.

          The idea of what is considered “old”, “fancy” and “fancy old” doesn’t necessarily map the same way as it does in Latin/Western writing in general, the cultural and historical sensibility and connotations are often quite different, although in most broad sense, you could find some style analogues to achieve a similar vibe, but it would be quite context dependent.

          • Mayor Poopington@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            21 days ago

            Thanks for the explanation! Now I want to fuck with people by telling them they used the Chinese version of wing dings.

      • flames5123@lemmy.world
        71·
        20 days ago

        Chinese characters in “arial” font would be monowidth lines, no serifs, no real pizzaz. The tattoo in the picture is how I see most Chinese character tattoos. This is still stylized a bit.

        • ylph@lemmy.world
          8·
          20 days ago

          Sure, but tattoos in sans serif fonts are still super common, and honestly, it makes little difference, the one in OP is still basic as fuck - call it Times New Roman instead of Arial. It reads like plain text to a Chinese reader, not some kind of calligraphy - what you call “stylized” is actually just the default original textbook stroke style of the standard script. The sans serif version with monowidth lines is actually more of a modern stylized form of that.

      • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
        2·
        21 days ago

        The one in the photo is probably still a font. How many tattoo artists would know how to write in Chinese calligraphy.

        • ylph@lemmy.world
          9·
          21 days ago

          To me it looks done by hand, the inconsistencies in character sizes and stroke widths wouldn’t be seen in an actual font. The 独 also looks very hand drawn, the vertical strokes on 無 as well. It’s very “textbook” calligraphy, done by someone who knows the strokes and has some practice, but dull and with no personality, and still a degree of insecurity and inconsistency in the strokes, so perhaps a late beginner to intermediate level student of calligraphy. Not necessarily by the tattoo artist either, it could have been tattooed from a template written on paper.

    • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
      16·
      21 days ago

      Old English script always makes the word look like a different word, like water here looks like bater.

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      21 days ago

      Exactly. The characters are in a pretty nice calligraphy font, with tapered edges and slight flourishes. The letters are in the ugliest block print possible.

  • uservoid1@lemmy.worldEnglish
    60·
    21 days ago

    According to Google translate the visible part says: “Independent, curious and ruthless” which isn’t that bad of a text.

  • Magister@lemmy.world
    54·
    21 days ago

    Reminds me of someone who have the Chinese word for “refrigerator” on his right shoulder, and when Chinese people would point and laugh about it, he would roll up his sleeve from his left shoulder where there is a tattoo of a fridge

  • L0rdMathias@sh.itjust.works
    391·
    21 days ago

    Bruh what? Imagine thinking water - the bringer of life - isn’t cool enough to warrant getting a tattoo of it. I hope his mouth remains eternally slightly dry.

  • Agent641@lemmy.world
    23·
    20 days ago

    If I’m gonna get a foreign language tattooed on me (and I’m probably not gonna until I’m 80 at least) it’s gonna be some Sumerian cuniform, probably hate mail to Ea Nasir.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    22·
    20 days ago

    Someone in another thread (or on a Youtube comment I’m not sure) posted a T-shirt found in Japan that said in English “Too young to live, too fast to die, Cream Soda” which I think is an Initial D lyric.

  • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
    191·
    20 days ago

    Calligraphy is a traditional art form in China and Japan, so it seems to me like many people there recognize the beauty of the characters. Some people just want an excuse to hate on other people (and for some reason tattoos on other people really draw this behavior out).

    • ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.org
      81·
      20 days ago

      Getting a tattoo is a more or less permanent decision. It’s soooo very important to make sure tattooed people understand they made a bad decision, because it’s permanent! Otherwise I won’t feel better about me and my boring small minded self :(

      • Snowclone@lemmy.world
        2·
        19 days ago

        Also of people are aware of what it says, or that there’s no grammar involved, or it’s off the real script a bit, they really do just like the calligraphy.

    • ylph@lemmy.world
      4·
      19 days ago

      Compare the OP with some actual Chinese artists doing Chinese calligraphy tattoos - for example in Hong Kong or Taiwan (some of the photos are a bit NSFW, so be warned)

      There is a bit of difference between “Chinese calligraphy” and “write me a list of words in plain Chinese characters”

      I have no problem with people tattooing whatever they want on themselves btw - but it’s true that from the perspective of someone who can read Chinese, these tattoos (like in the OP) are not “beautiful Chinese characters” or “calligraphy” - they do come across as mostly just confusing lists of strangely formatted and crudely written random words.

      • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
        3·
        19 days ago

        Yeah I appreciate that there are certainly a lot of bad tattoos that involve Chinese characters. The one shown is probably one of them. I just don’t think westerners who use Chinese characters deserve special scorn. There are a lot of bad tattoos that involve western lettering as well.

        • ylph@lemmy.world
          1·
          18 days ago

          Certainly scorn is too strong. I feel like this was a fad that has mostly passed anyway - both due to increased globalization leading to demystification of the “Orient” in general, and Chinese cultural symbols in particular, as well as general trends towards more boldness and self-expression in Western tattoo culture, such as increasing popularity of face tattoos, intentionally “ugly” tattoo aesthetics and much less hesitation tattooing random English words all over the place. Not that I am necessarily a fan of that either, but I feel like it’s at least some progress, not hiding the meanings behind some “exotic” Chinese characters, and just embracing what you want to say directly.

          If you wouldn’t get something tattooed in English because it seems a bit cringe, well it will still be cringe in Chinese - possibly more if you mess it up. And if you do like Chinese culture, characters or calligraphy - at least try to get something that does it some justice and maybe has at least some cultural relevance beyond just “some words, but in Chinese”

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    17·
    20 days ago

    This site is now dead, but it used to be one of my favorites. It’s someone who would translate the Asian-language tattoos people would send in. A lot of them were not even using real symbols or letters, but a lot of others were hilarious.

    https://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/

    This is one of their last posts and, to be fair to them, it’s pretty hard to continue a blog like that once your irony meter has exploded.

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
    16·
    20 days ago

    Chinese writing is a vast world of art and ideas, with probably over 30 thousand different characters, nobody knows for sure how many there are. Not knowing what a character is, to strip it of meaning or cultural baggage, kind of frees one up to appreciate the rhythm and delicate balance of lines as their own thing.
    Then again, you do not want to end up with PIG SWAMP MOUNTAIN DWARF NOODLE in permanent ink on your skin.

    If you want to see Ewan McGregor naked and his body covered in Chinese calligraphy, sometime between Trainspotting and Star Wars, do check out Peter Greenaway’s bonkers visual masterpiece The Pillow Book.

  • Snowclone@lemmy.world
    16·
    19 days ago

    China: Makes the most beautiful calligraphy writing where every word is a pleasure to write and see. Also China: It says ‘Soup’ down your arm, man. Why are you writing Soup all down your arm?

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
    122·
    21 days ago

    The important thing is to know what it actually says. Outside of that, Chinese and other type writings are artistic in themselves already, so even if it only said “water”, if that looked nice why not?

    This picture shows that artistic character. If her back had the meaning tattooed in English it might get some odd stares. Unless it was in Papyrus font.

    • ylph@lemmy.world
      7·
      21 days ago

      It might look artistic to you, but to a Chinese reader this example looks basic and dull, so they just see the meaning of the words much the same as the “WATER” on the left. There just isn’t any real aesthetic or artistic value here, in the context of Chinese writing.

      It kind of goes both ways though, back in the day there was a fad in Asia too of people wearing clothes with random English words on them, because there those looked exotic and cool, even though to Westerners it looked a bit dumb.

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
        2·
        20 days ago

        More likely that finding someone in the west competent enough to do calligraphy is a lot more uncommon, and if for people who never see the characters they all look exotic, so the basic font is good enough for them. At the very least the tat in this pic doesn’t seem to be fucked up (mirrored, missing radicals, etc) or using the fake font to “mimic” the latin alphabet.