Her last name is “Soup”? 
Kaley says it means faith.
http://www.ellentv.com/2013/05/14/kaleys-tramp-stamp-full-version/
She also competed in the current season of The Voice, where she did reasonably well, but has since been voted off.
It’s in the wrong location for the “soup” tattoo. 
Tattoo means “I’m a dumb white bitch wallowing in cultural appropriation”.
Might as well close the thread, I think this is it.
Same here, on both counts.
It can mean trust, believe, faith, or oddly, letter, according to my reliable translator. 
Why the ‘soup’ reference? What’s the joke behind that?
It may not mean soup but I’d still give it a taste.
Bloody hell, I do believe that is the Chinese symbol for “aim here.”
This probably belongs in the pit, but WTF?
Are you trying to make a case that no one of a particular “culture” can *never *admire, use, or in any other way adapt an object, thought, or symbol from any other “culture”?
On a scale of racist to horribly racist, that’s insulting to all humanity.
It’s a commentary on the common practice of people, especially Westerners, getting tattoos of “meaningful” words, but getting them in a language which the bearer does not themself understand, which one would expect if anything to render the message of the tattoo less meaningful. If you want the word “faith” permanently inscribed on your body, why not do it in English, rather than in a language where you’re just taking the word of the tattoo artist that it doesn’t actually mean “soup”?
Now, maybe Ms. Cuoco actually does speak some dialect of Chinese, and finds the choice of language itself significant for some personal reason, so it’s possible that this doesn’t apply in this case. But it’s far more likely to be yet another example of the phenomenon.
Comes from a Big Bang Theory episode. Penny falls in the shower, Sheldon is helping her and ask why she has the Chinese character for soup as a tattoo.
Not racist at all, everyone I’ve ever asked about a tattoo in a language they don’t speak has said something to the effect of it is cooler in Chinese/Hebrew etc. Always seamed shallow and pretentious to me. Maybe I was making an assumption I shouldn’t have but it sure wasn’t racist.
And so what? People have borrowed from each others’ cultures since the first time two tribes met. Doing so does not make one a “dumb white bitch”. Getting a tattoo in a different language is no more “cultural appropriation” than using a phrase from a language one doesn’t speak. Are you not allowed to display Asian art with calligraphic letters if you can’t personally translate them? The Japanese regularly wear shirts with English phrases that are essentially meaningless. Does that make them “dumb yellow bitches”?
There are lots of bad things cultures do to one another. This isn’t one of them. Calling someone with a Chinese tattoo a “dumb white bitch” is bad, top to bottom and every which way.
Well, not that I would ever get a tattoo (shudder) but for an English speaker, Hebrew or Chinese or Japanese characters are exotic and interesting whereas Latin letters are mundane and boring. So if you someone wanted “faith” tattooed, I can see why the choice would be something exotic vs. mundane.
Perpetuating orientalism isn’t a bad thing?
Edward Said is rolling in his grave.
Season 3 episode 8 “The Adhesive Duck Deficiency”
Here’s the quote from the episode.
Sheldon: Oh, oh, red light, release accelerator and slowly apply the brake. Nailed it. While we have a moment, may I ask you a question?
Penny: What?
Sheldon: Why do you have the Chinese character for soup tattooed on your right buttock?
Penny: It’s not soup, it’s courage.
Sheldon: No, it isn’t. But I suppose it does take courage to demonstrate that kind of commitment to soup.
it also takes much faith and trust to believe a tatoo guy’s interpretation of a foreign word.