This morning I noticed a tattoo on the back of a young woman’s neck. It consisted of 2 vertical columns of about 5 symbols in each column, so I initially assumed it was Kanji. But when I got a closer look, it did not resemble any Kanji I had seen before. The symbols were written with primarily straight lines in much more of a “block” form, instead of a flowing script. The only symbols I got a good look at were the bottom 2. The one on the left resembled an upside down capitol A, with the cross bar extending beyone the upright slanted lines. The one on the right was three parallel horizontal lines. They didn’t look like most of what I assume is Kanji.
I seemed to have a vague recollection that some ancient script used the upside-down A as a representation of a cow’s head, perhaps the precursor to the Arabic A. But I’m drawing a blank. Also believe it is a universal sign in formal logic.
Any ideas? This person was in her 20s - I thought they might represent something in popular culture of which I was unaware.
Nah, didn’t look tribal. Really looked like 2 vertical columns of characters.
Didn’t think to ask - was pretty much zoning out on my way into work, getting off the train. She was in front of me and I just kind became aware that her hair was up and she had ink on the back of her neck. Then by the time I took a better look at it she was down the stairs and off the train, and it didn’t occur to me to hurry after her and tell her, “Um, I was staring at your neck, but I’m not really an old perv!”
I have seen some really cool vertical columns that look foreign, but are actually just horizontal words in a italicy font turned vertical. Any chance of checking out her neck on a future trip?
Look at the bright side, it wasn’t her lower back! :eek:
Well, I saw her today and she had her hair up, so I asked her. She said, “It means wealth and happiness.” I asked if it was kanji and she responded, *“It’s Chinese.”*I asked if she’d like to go someplace private and discuss any more ink she might have in any more discreet locations, and …
So what do you think the chances are that this young woman’s neck actually says anything related to “wealth and happiness”?
If you saw this tattoo, could you tell what it says? I am getting it done in a few weeks: Tat idea
It is the same upside down as right side up (whatever that is called).
I think it might need a tad more tweaking before you get it permanently inked.
My main difficulty is with the vertical line to the left of the initial K, the vertical line with serif on the right bottom of the Y, and the vertical line to the left of the final K.
Wait a minute - are you suggesting I turn this young lady upside down?
Kayak? Only basing that on the green lines. I love ambigrams, but this one isn’t very good, honestly. There’s too much going on in what should be negative space and not enough going on where the letters should be.
From the unaided picture, the best I could come up with was "Yin…"something, which makes me assume “YinYang”, which makes me look like this –> :rolleyes: (Don’t get me wrong, I love the T’ai Chi and everything it stands for, but “YinYang”, especially the Americanized Yang-rhymes-with-Southern-Twang is just a silly word, so I’m glad that’s not it.)
The upside-down A sounds like it could be a stylised Japanese hiragana “se”, the three horizontal characters could be “3”, and the girl could have been badly misinformed?
Yeah, I think it would be aces for me to ask a hot girl 1/2 my age whom I’ve just seen occasionally on my commute if she’d be willing to participate in a photo session! I bet she’s been just waiting for me to make such a suggestion…
I know nothing about Chinese, but if anything, these symbols strike me as poor penmanship if nothing else. They don’t seem to flow and exhibit the subtleties I expect of Chinese symbols.
To me, it seems an interesting ethical question. If you find that another person’s tattoo doesn’t mean what she thinks it means, should you tell her? If she believes it says, “Wealth and happiness will befall me eventually,” but it really means, “I bake the worst cookies in all of Shanghai,” will it make her a better person to know the truth? What should the mindful person do?
