The Show Off Your Tattoo Thread

ic1male said:
What is it? I came across a definition of "tinkling of jade" which is rather whimsical.
Click to expand...

Hmm, interesting. Not what I have though :D.

Mei Ling is Mandarin for Beautiful & (smart & cute). BB could be using the Cantonese meaning (same character set but different pronunciations and meanings).

Quite common as a female name here in Singapore although I am informed it is quite a rare female name in mainland China.

Also, just as a small point, the characters have distinct meanings, the pronunciations of their pinyin counterparts can impart different meanings but then it would be a miss-pronunciation of that character.

Just so you know I am not plucking any old rubbish from the internet... I live in Singapore (80% Chinese), my wife is Chinese and I double checked with my boss before posting who is native mainland Chinese and uses Mandarin as his primary language for his 50+ years (he was suspicious when I asked him to translate as it is a female name :p).

I can check with work colleges in Hong Kong for the Cantonese translation if anyone is interested tomorrow (8:30 pm here now).

I personally think the characters have a wonderful meaning.

Yep it seems BB has Chinese heritage (only posted as I see she has already confirmed before I finished this reply) due to another post somewhere else where she refers to her name (no wont post link unless BB is happy for me to do so).

I will find out from my wife when she gets home what bell is in Chinese characters for you if you wish. Mnadarin or Cantonese ? ;)
 
I still need to get a proper pic of my tattoo, I got one picture but it looks a bit meh cos of the bruises.
 
Last edited:
The character for bell is very close to what you have, BB. The right part of it "object that is pleasant sounding" but the left part (jade radical) is not right. So you do indeed have jade object that is pleasant sounding - tinkling of jade pieces. It should be the metal radical. So for bell it's metal object that is pleasant sounding.

You have - 玲 whereas bell is 鈴
See the difference?

Now I'm not anywhere near an expert in Chinese so will wait to see what RimBlock's entourage says.
 
Apologies

Some clarification.

Characters can have different meanings.

From my wife.....

The character can mean bell but...... the two characters together are not a very 'nice' way of saying beautiful bell.

Mei Ling tattoo'd on a guy will usually be interpreted as being the guys girlfriends name.

On a woman it would be taken as her name although it would raise the question of why she would want to have her own name tattoo'd on her back.

There are much nicer ways to write beautiful bell in Chinese characters.
Click to expand...

As I said, my bosses first reading was beautiful & (smart & cute) for those characters.

If you would like me to find out a better way of writing Beautiful Bell as in the descriptive sense of a bell then let me know and I will check for you tomorrow. My wife suggests I check with my boss as he is mainland Chinese with more exposure to Mandarin characters and their meanings.

Chinese reaction to westerners with Chinese characters is usually one of confusion as to why they would have that tattoo'd on their backs. Usually there is a nicer way to say the same thing and just joining two words together to try to create the 'whole' meaning is considered quite crude. Bit like the Japanese liking the way English is written and so putting English words all over the place without understanding that they don't really go together (unless they are a name) - "Super happy fun joy time" for example ;).

They do it here too with "Kikapoo - Super happy joy drink". A literal translation from Chinese I would guess. Photo can be produced (although not in this thread) at request ;).

Mandarin and Chinese characters do my head in :D.

Cheers
RB
 
ic1male said:
Now I'm not anywhere near an expert in Chinese so will wait to see what RimBlock's entourage says.
Click to expand...

Haha, family project now. Even my son has his English to Chinese electronic dictionary out (he has to learn a 'mother tongue language at school as well as English which is Chinese for him).

RB
 
Oh my God this is so complex!

Need to get it right though... I lolled at your wife's 3rd comment - they clearly wouldn't do that there :) Personal Branding - tell her!

I don't mind being known as Beautiful, smart and cute. :D would be interested to see what the 'Bell' character is... as long as it doesn't read as something totally crude I will go with the Beautiful, smart and cute version of 'Mei Ling'.

Thanks for your help everyone :)

Edit: Rimblock ic1male might have the right character? ^^^

BB x
 
I would probably ignore what I've written - it's the most dangerous thing to do in languages - take two separate elements or ideas and try to combine them to make a new word just because we can in English.
 
ic1male said:
The character for bell is very close to what you have, BB. The right part of it "object that is pleasant sounding" but the left part (jade radical) is not right. So you do indeed have jade object that is pleasant sounding - tinkling of jade pieces. It should be the metal radical. So for bell it's metal object that is pleasant sounding.

You have - 玲 whereas bell is 鈴
See the difference?
Click to expand...

And Chinese characters strike again.

Both symbols have the same meaning. One is Traditional (right) and the other is simplified (left).

The left side of the symbol means something of metal and on it's own is the character for Gold. When both elements for the character are combined the meaning changes.

Ok, have had a word with my boss but need to confirm the 'concept' you are after as there is really no direct pleasent translation straight to beautiful bell(e).

If you are after bell as is beautiful sounding musical instrument then there are variations along the lines of 'beautiful bird song'. If you are after belle as in belle of the ball then would combinations giving a combined meaning of beautiful lady be acceptable.

With the single characters having multiple meanings, it is easy to see why people tattooing things like the symbol for smart on their selves bring confusion to those who can read the characters. It is only the combination together that gives the overall meaning. The characters for 'smart of mind' would make more sense as the meaning then becomes clear.

Reminds me of the scandinavian, I think, advert shown on one of the shows like 'Tarrent on TV' with an older lady driving her old car listening to some English pop music. She is quite happily bobbing away to the music with a big smile. The lyrics revolve around the singer singing about wanting to explore the listeners chocolate starfish :eek:. The catch line was something about learning English as a second language. :D

RB
 
RimBlock you should start a website, Tattoo translations and provide this as a service to people :) Sooo many people get them wrong . I alone know of two people

You could make a fortune :p
 
Im just about following, but what ever happens it will be a great tattoo.

Have you started looking for any tattooist's yet?
 
RimBlock said:
Both symbols have the same meaning. One is Traditional (right) and the other is simplified (left).

The left side of the symbol means something of metal and on it's own is the character for Gold. When both elements for the character are combined the meaning changes.
Click to expand...

No dude. That's definitely not right. The left symbol's left side means jade, the right symbol's left side means gold/metal. Metal in traditional form is 金 and simplified form is 钅
 
BrightonBelle said:
My parents are my biggest worry - so will have to wear my hair down around them! Will never get it cut that short again anyway.

Nearly 30 and worrying about what my parents would think... awful isn't it? Although I may be able to sway them because of what it is.

BB x
Click to expand...

If you get one i'm telling mum.
 
ic1male said:
No dude. That's definitely not right. The left symbol's left side means jade, the right symbol's left side means gold/metal. Metal in traditional form is 金 and simplified form is 钅
Click to expand...
Hi ic1male,

My own 'independant' research would tend to agree with you.

Tinklingofgempendants.png
is 'The tinkling of gem pendants' when used in compounds (ie collections of characters).
smallbell.png
is small bell.

but, and you can see it is a big 'but', I will confirm with my 'experts' :D.

How about some suggestions as alternatives;
Thevoiceisheardbyheaven.png
The voice is heard by heaven

delicateexquisite.png
Delicate and exquisite

youngwomanssweetvoiceintalkingandla.png
Young womans sweet talking voice and laughing / pleasant scene of spring.

beautifulwithaheavenlyvoice.png
Pretty with a heavenly voice direct translation from english so could probably be improved although I do recall the first two characters being "piao liang" meaning beautiful / pretty from when I was learning Mandarin, third is a joiner, fourth and fifith are heaven, sixth is a joiner and seventh and eighth is voice.

beautifulbell.png
Interestingly using the smae translation service, beautiful bell comes out as this although the last two characters could also mean time which would be a whole other story :eek:.

Again, I will confirm with my oracle of knowledge tomorrow, she is out for a wedding banquet tonight and I am working today, to confirm context and my investigations would be acceptible.

Oh and as an example of the complexity, Yu4 (pinyin for Jade, 4th tone) has over 100 meanings depending on tone / character for that tone and the context. Try putting "yu" in to an chinese dictonary.:D

Will update later / tommorow.

RB
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom