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Um... No, not really...

I'm pretty sure I can know when I'm in pain as well as when I'm happy, maybe YOU can't know that I'm happy, but if I'm the one feeling happy, and I think to myself, "Hmm, I'm pretty happy.", then I'd say I can probably know whether or not I'm happy. Punch somebody in the gut and tell me they're not in pain. As for somebody other than me being able to know whether or not I'm happy, sure you can't KNOW for a fact that I'm happy, but there are signs, and signals, etc. But that's not really what my post was about, it was about choosing to display your happiness by getting a tattoo, but getting the Chinese symbol for the word happy instead of just getting the word "Happy" tattooed on your arm. I think it's stupid that so many people feel that getting it in some foreign, odd-looking(to them) language makes it "cooler" or "more symbolic."

Malarky I say.

Boring. We've done this discussion.

Well, then I'm left with the question "What should determine our standards for creating and upholding any various symbol's meaning? Should we cater to what the majority (90 percent or more) view something as, or should we leave things to be ambiguous just because 'a few' people 'might' see things in a different way. There is never going to be an "always" in anything related to human nature, all you can do is find out what is mostly true, or usually true, and use those examples as guidelines, but never as concrete rules.

We're all veering off course though, stop being all sissy and talking about feelings, I want to know why people think it's cooler to get the Chinese symbol for Happy instead of just tattooing the word Happy on them, it's the same damned thing.

Totem loves tattoos!

Tell us all about it, T!

Hey, malee, could you help me rearrange these letters? GYF CNUT

I think the only way we can rehash this topic with any kind of serious interest is if DF shows us ALL her tattoos and piercings!

The Eastern languages most often used for tattoos are in usually done in a traditional way, with widely varied "pen strokes" that are artistically interesting, or in a hyper-modern graphical design way - again, artidtically interesting.

But the big thing about getting a word inked in a foreign languages is that your eye immediately sees only the pattern, and appreciates the artistry of the pattern. It's the owner who also gets a secondary pleasure of knowing the meaning, without actually having the meaning obscuring his artistic experience in looking at it, because his brain doesn't first supply him with the word.

Another artistic/design consideration is the overall shape of the tattoo. English words are very long horizontally, and narrow vertically. Chinese words are square shaped, or fit into a blocky rectangle that often approximates the ratio of the "golden mean" that is very pleasing to the human eye. So a Chinese word might be better liked on it's own than an English word.

Eastern text of course looks better going down an arm, leg or torso.

If you wanted words to circle an arm or wrist, English, Tibetan or Hebrew would come into their own then. But if it's English, I doubt many people would go for Times New Roman or Helvetica. Too bland, too boring, too well known.

Finally we come to your point. Yes, an English word isn't interesting to us, and a Chinese word isn't interesting to a Chinese person. Yes, Chinese stuff is artificially interesting to us, and English stuff is artificially interesting to the Chinese, becasue of the difference in what each group has grown up with.

But this is a beneficial arrangement. It provides more kicks to everyone. Unfamiliarity creates the exotic and multicultural. Exotic and multicultural is interesting, and it's better to have interest than to have banality. Why not celebrate the fact that variety exists in the world?