Tattoo terror rife in foreign languages

Sexy, sultry and wearing a practically see-through sheer dress, Lily explained to me that "Carpe Diem," the words tattooed on her shoulder, reminded her to live for the moment each day. We were on our fifth vodka.

"I don't think you need to be reminded of that," I said. "I think your tattoo should say 'call my mother' or 'save some money.'"

Getting a tattoo in a foreign language is a bad idea because you miss important nuance.

Riding on the subway one day, I noticed a young Chinese man with a fine American tattoo of a rose with sharp thorns. Above it was a dove carrying a banner that would normally say something like "Mom" or the name of a sweetheart. Instead, it appeared that he had a Japanese girlfriend called "Name."

This made me curious, so I went to the He Tattoo studio in Sanlitun and flipped through an album of their works. I noticed a tattoo down a woman's side that said: "You are my best love." But it begs the question - how many other loves does she have?

Another man had "Kiss from goddess" tattooed on his shoulder, under a pair of lipstick marks. There were also fine specimens of "Lil and Fat J" and "Carol McGrath is the hottest girl in the world."

Getting a boyfriend or girlfriend's name tattooed on you is almost always a bad idea, even if you do it in another language. "I'd say 95 percent of people regret it if they are not married," said Xiao He, the studio's chief tattooist.

But you can be too safe, as well. One Chinese man went too far the other way by inking himself with: "I love you forever/you are the most important people in my life/parents wife kids." No one is going to argue with that, at least on first glance. Upon reflection, if that is how you really feel, is it really necessary to have it scrawled on your flesh as a reminder? Eddie, another one of the studio's tattooists, said he had the word "balance" tattooed across his knuckles because he was seeking it at the time. A foreigner was inked with Chinese characters from the idiom shisi rugui, which means "face death unflinchingly."

To me, most tattoos regardless of their language read: "poor impulse control."

Xiao once tried to talk a foreigner out of getting the Chinese character tattoo of buzui bugui, which literally means: "not drunk, won't return." The foreigner insisted, however, and Xiao relented.

One of the most common Chinese characters requested by tattoo-seeking foreigners is that of fu, which means "blessing." But Chinese never pick this one, Eddie said, noting it is deemed more suitable for a front door.

Eddie, like all the artists at He Tattoo, takes his craft seriously.

One of his tattoos, "Gogh," caught my eye.

I asked him what it meant, to which he replied it was a tribute to a famous Dutch artist.

By Chris Hawke