Good Characters, Inc. (oh, the irony) has launched a new application for Apple iPhones called "Chinese Alphabet".


http://goodcharacters.com/blog/blog.php?id=110

The application uses a set of random Chinese characters to correspond with 26 letters in English alphabet. The company claims this will "add mystery to your writing".

At least they are smart enough to put up this disclaimer at bottom of the page:

"The translation provided by Chinese Alphabet is intended for personal use and entertainment only. Not recommended for tattoo artists to use this to tattoo their clients, iPhone app developers to localize Chinese apps, CIA agents to communicate national secrets, or security professionals to encrypt passwords."

PERMANENT by Riot Productions

PERMANENT @ Infusion
2nd Jan 2010

A union of steel and flesh, the art of ink and skin – PERMANENT will dispel the taboos surrounding the world of counter-culture in Singapore.

Join us for a New Year party like you’ve never seen before at the aptly-named Infusion, and prepare to experience a mesmerising night of art where the skin becomes the canvas. With live tattooing and piercing exhibitions and sessions from four of the foremost tattoo studios in Singapore, as well as professional skin airbrushing, Henna painting, and a mind-blowing graffiti showcase, we promise an evening that will be permanently seared into your mind.

Location: 16A Dempsey Road, Infusion
Doors Open: 9.30pm
Door Tickets: $18
Presale Tickets: $16
Each ticket entitles to 1 free drink and 1 airbrush tattoo
For Presale Tickets please contact Kenneth Sim @ 9691 0569

Participating Tattoo/Art Studios:
1) Immortal Tattoos
2) Primitive Art Piercing & Tattoo Studio
3) Visual Orgasm
4) Art Inflict
5) Attic Gothic Lolita Punk
6) Path (Body Art & Special Effects)

Event is gonna be a tattoo exhibition/new year party.
Activities going on are the following:
1) Live Tattooing from all studios
2) Live Piercing (Walk-in)
3) Airbrush
4) Henna
5) Body painting showcase
6) Body Piercing showcase
7) Graffiti showcase
8) Live spinning by DJ Nel of Riot Productions

*send your questions to info@riot.sg

http://www.bme.com/tattoo/A91210/high/jyc7-tribals-natural.jpg

At firs, it looks like pure gibberish - mixed Japanese and Chinese characters:

厉 カ ネ 羊

But looking more carefully, perhaps the idiot started with these characters:

励祥

But then he decided to switch from horizontal to vertical writing, and then split up the characters at the wrong places, making two characters into four.

Hopeless!

By the way, what does 励祥 mean anyway?

from: Herouth M.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 1:43 AM
subject: [Fwd: Emailing: P1230294.JPG]

Hi. I'm from Israel. Love your blog.

The story goes like this: I study Japanese for several years now, and I can read about 1400 kanji more or less. One day, my co-worker approaches me with his cellphone. "Can you tell me what this says?" he asks me, showing me a photo of a piece of fabric carrying the kanji 私変態. I take a look, and reply "It's not grammatical, but it basically says "I'm a pervert".

"What?!"

"'I'm a pervert'. The first character means 'I', the other two mean 'pervert'", where did you get that from, anyway?

"It's on my 1.5 years old daughter's shirt!"

After LOLing for about 15 minutes straight, I kind of demanded that he get me a photo of the complete shirt so I can send it to Hanzi Smatter. And here is the shirt, complete with the cute, luckless 1.5 years old "hentai" herself.

I mean, yes, I have seen intentionally-made "hentai" shirts around the web (and on Hanzi Smatter). Adults buy them and wear them for the laughs. But who in his right mind would put this on a toddler's shirt, and sell it in a children's clothing store rather than a joke shop? I can't imagine.

Yes, I suppose it *could* mean "metamorphosis", but really, outside scientific contexts, it's almost always means "pervert". Or am I wrong?

Cheers,
Herouth



Cute kid, though. The "bunny" or whatever kind of cute animal that is also on the shirt is a nice touch. We have obviously uncovered a diabolical plot to "pervert" innocent youth with inappropriate hanzi!

By the way, the T-shirt would be cuter and better if it was grammatically correct, like:

私、変態なんです。[I ... am a pervert.]

私、変態かも…[I might be a pervert...]

As it is, it sounds more like Tarzan-speak: "me - pervert." You kind of expect "you - Jane" next.