Thursday, September 8, 2005

http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A50905/high/bmegl123947.jpg

The English word “screw” bears many meanings include “a rod-shaped piece with a spiral groove and a slotted or recessed head designed to be inserted into material by rotating (as with a screwdriver ) and used for fastening pieces of solid material together”, and in vulgar slang, “an act of sexual intercourse”.

The slang term “screw this” usually has meaning equivalent to “forget about it”. Unfortunately English slang often does not direct translate very well contextually into Chinese or Japanese.

This young man probably wanted to express his angst of “screw this” in Chinese (), yet did not have the patience to verify if the contextual translation was correct or not. His tattoo literally means “insert screw-nail here”, which is something that comes with furniture assembly instruction.

Or he could be a loyal employee of IKEA corporation.


6 comments:

  1. Ha, yeah, most idioms don't translate into other languages very well. Is there a Chinese equivalent of this sentiment?

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  2. Well, now he's screwed.

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  3. Plus, those are some ugly ass flames. The tattoo is hideous regardless of the translation.

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  4. i prefer the furniture phrase to what he may have intended anyway. Much cooler to have that than screw it - as long as you know what it means.
    Perhaps 算了 Forget it! Might have met his wishes.

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  5. I must say, I've never come across any Chinese sentence or phrase that ends with 這. Usually it has to be followed by a quantifier or a noun, or if it means "here", by 兒 or 裡.

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  6. I hope it's a fake :S
    because regardless of whether the chinese words are done correctly or not, it's hideous

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