Bad Translation on Friend's Tattoo

October 5, 2010 2:34 PM

My (non-English speaking) friend has a tattoo in English that doesn't make sense. Do I tell her?

I'm a native English speaker living abroad, and I've started seeing this girl. We talk in her native language as she doesn't speak any English, but she does have a big tattoo up her forearm with a phrase like "everything in the world always does not" (I've changed a couple words here). I can't parse it, my best guess is "everything in the world does not always last". This must be what Chinese people feel like when they see young Americans come over with some tattooed gibberish picked up in the States.

I think this is going to bug me, and given the number of English-speaking friends someone's going to say something about it eventually. Should I be the one to point it out? Is there any way to do that without making it an embarrassing experience?

posted by anonymous to Human Relations (30 answers total)

Ask her about it more generally and if the opportunity arises point out it's wrong.

My friend is fluent in Arabic and he regularly confronts people with erroneous tattoos. It's the right thing to do, in some instances it can be recitifed.
posted by fire&wings at 2:38 PM on October 5, 2010

My first thought was to not say anything. But if someone else points it out to her, she's going to ask you why you didn't mention it. Seems pretty lose-lose.

Ask her about it, and mention something vague like it has some "interesting grammar" but you still get the meaning.
posted by auto-correct at 2:43 PM on October 5, 2010

Isn't this one of those treat others how you'd like to be treated situations? If you would want it pointed out to you then I think you should tell her. If you wouldn't want it pointed it out to you, and it won't bother you, then don't say anything.
posted by zephyr_words at 2:44 PM on October 5, 2010 [6 favorites]

I'd say no. For every Chinese or Japanese tattoo I see on acquaintances and students that makes sense in the US I see three that make absolutely no sense whatsoever, like you said. I never point it out to anyone, because most people in the intended audience (other Americans) don't know the difference and the tattoo-ee presumably enjoys the tattoo.

And didn't that singer Rihanna (sp.) just get a nonsense French tattoo? It's pretty common.

If you get serious you might point it out to her then, but it might cause her a lot of anxiety and she might not be able to easily fix it. If one of your friends mentions it to her, deal with the friend. That friend would be kind of a jerk, I'd think. If I were you, I'd just play it off as if the mistake weren't a big deal. People the world over use languages as decorations.
posted by vincele at 2:49 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

I would point it out as nicely and kindly as possible. Like fire&wings said, sometimes these things can be fixed. It's much better to know than to be blissfully ignorant and have someone else rudely point out that her tattoo doesn't make sense.

The way I'd bring it up is to ask her where she got it, and as her what the artist said it meant, then ask her what she thinks it means, then gently correct her. Then I'd look up a reputable artist with her and see if it can be corrected.
posted by patheral at 2:51 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

She is going to hear it at some point, it may as well be from someone with her best interests at heart.
posted by fire&wings at 2:55 PM on October 5, 2010 [8 favorites]

Tattoos generally have a meaning to the person with the tattoo regardless of what it actually is or says, so I would avoid saying anything. It's like when someone tells you a shirt you're wearing looks silly -- you're likely never to wear that shirt again or at least think about that statement every time you put it on. Why make someone feel bad?
posted by thorny at 3:00 PM on October 5, 2010

It's a tattoo, not a résumé or a grant application.
posted by wackybrit at 3:07 PM on October 5, 2010 [4 favorites]

Don't say anything.

A very very large number of tattoos in non-native languages are gibberish. But it doesn't diminish the value and meaning of the tattoo to the person who got it.

(Though I would ask her why she got it and what it means to her just to get the mystery out of my head.)
posted by Ookseer at 3:07 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

If I were her I would want to know, but I'm not sure how "normal" I am, so... grain of salt and all.

Perhaps it's supposed to read, "It's not the end of the world," and it's just sort of an indelible, ironic rendering of that concept. I'd begin by asking her what it means to her, and have her elaborate. You never know; I've seen deliberate punning in tattoos.
posted by heyho at 3:11 PM on October 5, 2010

She is going to hear it at some point, it may as well be from someone with her best interests at heart.

On the other hand: She is going to hear it at some point, it may as well be from someone who is not trying to date her.
posted by Think_Long at 3:14 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'd wait until she asked me something like, "Hey, what do you think of my tattoo?"

My response would be something like, "Looks great! I can't really make sense of what it says, though."

Until then I would keep my mouth shut.
posted by dismal at 3:17 PM on October 5, 2010

Ask her "Where did you get this tattoo? What is it meant to say?" Then say, "Well, yeah, I can see how it says that. It's not how I would have worded it, but yeah, I see it. It's nice." Then kiss it and say, "And it tastes nice, too."
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 3:20 PM on October 5, 2010 [3 favorites]

Try to gauge her interests. Some English-speakers who get Chinese tattoos do it simply because it's trendy and looks cool (in addition to liking the purported meaning of the characters). Others are legitimately interested in Chinese culture, language, history, and so on. For the latter group, accuracy is going to mean a lot more.

Does your friend want to learn English? Does she seem interested in the English-speaking world? I'd choose a course of action based on her relationship with the language. If it's more generic "oh yeah, English sounds pretty" and less "I am fascinated by England/USA/whatever and want to move there tomorrow," I wouldn't say anything.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 3:25 PM on October 5, 2010

Maybe it's such a cool tattoo that the last word from the end of the sentence is tattooed in a completely different place on her body. Maybe it would be fun to search for that word with her!
posted by CathyG at 3:45 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Heheh, this has happened sooo many times when I see folks with tattoos in bad Latin.

It's a bit too late to get it changed so I'd stay mum about it unless specifically asked. I made the mistake of jovially pointing out the improper translation of a tattoo on a gal I was dating and that did not go well at all.
posted by elendil71 at 3:45 PM on October 5, 2010

English is a very widely spoken language. A quick poll of the three people in my household right now advises you to tell her.
posted by dazed_one at 4:11 PM on October 5, 2010

Tell her, for God's sake. Maybe the tat has "meaning" for her, but do you think she wants to walk around looking like a linguistic ignoramus? What sense, what "meaning," could that possibly have? There's bound to be a way to fix or ameliorate this.

I speak as a dude who had a tat removed decades ago because I got it thinking it meant one thing and discovered later it meant something else, something that reflected poorly on me (and my earlier dumbness).

Tell her, let her decide what to do.
posted by fivesavagepalms at 4:43 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

"everything in the world always does not"

I like it. Pretty damn Zen.
posted by ovvl at 5:31 PM on October 5, 2010 [4 favorites]

I have one of those tattoos. I wish I'd been told a little nicer (fellow dancers in a dressing room burst out laughing at it) but I'm glad I was told.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 5:43 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's painful enough to have someone criticize a wardrobe item, and you can always throw it away if looking at it in your closet makes you sad. Giving her a tattoo line edit at this point can only have one of a few results -- hurt feelings being the least of them. You could just ask her what it means to her, as that is the most important thing about it.

Long shot; maybe it's a line from a poem, or a song, or the name of a show, as translated. Maybe it's the CHI-TONW of her culture.

It's possible that maybe she already is aware what English-speakers think of her tattoo. You say she has a number of English-speaking friends and someone will eventually point it out. Is there a reason you think this hasn't already happened? Let somebody else be the jerk.

I know a girl with a grocer's apostrophe in her tattoo who uses it as an asshole detector. It works really well.
posted by Sallyfur at 6:15 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

everything in the world always does not

"That's what they say. It's not what they mean."

maybe? :)
posted by torticat at 8:15 PM on October 5, 2010

"everything in the world always does not"

Your problem is solved. I'm officially adopting that as my new life motto since it is so damn true for me if you think of the words "I wish would happen" implicitly placed between "world" and "always."

I'm off to put it in my profile... Done.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 11:56 PM on October 5, 2010

Thanks! (Sorry I forgot the thank you part.)
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 11:56 PM on October 5, 2010

It might be a cunning word play that we have all fallen for. The end of the phrase could be "make sense" and since we are trying to make sense of it we are supporting the fact that "everything in the world does not make sense"
posted by stuartmm at 2:23 AM on October 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

You're a much better person than I am. I'd take a picture and send it to engrish.com. >:-D

Seriously, I believe that the truth is important. If I considered this person a good friend, I'd tell her that the tattoo is grammatically incorrect.
posted by Citrus at 8:24 AM on October 6, 2010

I would want to know if it were my tattoo. Ask about it in a generally way. Maybe it's a literal bad English line from a band she likes, and she was amused by its wrongness. You won't know if you don't ask.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:11 AM on October 6, 2010

There are three situations in which I would want to know:
--It's a really embarrassing mistake, like public/pubic;
--It's a mistake that's easy to fix, like a missing apostrophe;
--I am actively learning that language and want to know about its grammar.

This isn't any of the above, so criticizing it is just mean. Don't go there.
posted by sleepingcbw at 10:49 AM on October 6, 2010

Totally agree with sleepingcbw and with the "asshole detector" comment. If it were something that could be fixed easily, or that REALLY was humiliating or potentially dangerous, then I'd tell her. But what possible good could come from saying "You know that permanent thing that you have on your body that you spent a lot of time thinking about and a lot of money and pain acquiring and presumably is an important part of your identity since you saw fit to ink it on your skin? Well, heh, it's wrong." Something that used to give her a felling of joy or pride would become a shameful embarrassment, and I wouldn't want to be the person responsible for that unkindness. But then, that's just me. Other people might really, really want to know.
posted by staggering termagant at 6:11 AM on October 7, 2010

It's times like this I ask myself "Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go what to do look more like?" possibly found here on metafilter someplace

It's possible that she finds personal value in the tattoo and words even if they don't "make sense" to you. It sounds vaguely poetic:

Everything in the world

Always, does not

The problem here seems to be that this phrasing bothers you because it is "wrong! wrong!" -- you say you think it's going to bug you. It's not as though she has some sort of sexual slang or racial slur on herself. Maybe you will feel better about it if you can think of it as a quote from Yoda.
posted by yohko at 2:38 PM on October 7, 2010