Why do people get tattoos of Japanese symbols when they don't even know what they mean?

Answer 1

cuz their dumb.

not reallly, i guess they wanna be cool. But if they were cool, they would start their own trends.

Answer 2

I have the kanji for "Love" on my shoulder with the intentions to add "honor" and "cherish" with a custom design in the center. The artist and I actually took the design straight from an English-Japanese dictionary and enlarged it on a copier, because I wanted to MAKE SURE it said what I wanted to say and was written perfectly. I didn't get mine to follow any trend, I have just always had a love for Asian cultures, for everything from writing to architecture. Also, I like that not everyone knows what it says, I got my tattoo because it had meaning for me~ I didn't get it to impress anyone else so all that matters is that I know its significance and meaning.

Answer 3

Haha, that really happens?
I've never met a person that had a symbol and didn't know what it meant (or someone told them it meant...could be wrong on the tattoo artist fault and that person was just assuming they were right).
Are you sure you're not just pressuming things and think people don't understand or know the meaning?

Answer 4

Some people actually have some sort of contection to Japan (ie. really into Anime). Most of the time it is just cause it "looks cool". To every person their own, but I'd recommend people to double check. My mom has seen plenty of tats around that say random things like donkey paper when it was supposed to say something deep and meaningful. As with any foreign language, if you don't know it inside and out, double, triple check--you don't want to walk around with a stupid phrase on your body for the rest of your life!

Answer 5

Because they're idiots with the brainpower of a shoe,who will end up regretting they're tattoo and hate it later on in life.
They're the fags that give tattoos a bad name and scare other people who really think long and hard about having them done but are too worried.
My tattoo was one of the best decisions ive ever made and i wouldnt change it for anything.

Answer 6

well a friend of my brothers had a Chinese symbol on his arm that he thought meant "brother."
he got it with his two(?) brothers.
so he told me a few years ago, that when he was walking down the street one day, a woman who was a native from China, pointed at his arm and said "PIG!"
he said, "what.......no, BROTHER'
and the woman said "no.......pig!"

so apparently the tattoo artist told them that it meant brother, and it really meant pig, so now all 3 of them are stuck with that on them forever!
i don't see the point of getting a tattoo in another language, unless it is your native language, or you have that race in your family!

Answer 7

Exactly why I took a copy of my Japanese dictionary with me when I got mine done.
Hehhe, I knew someone who got a japanese symbol of what she thought meant 'raunchy, sexy' near her groin... only it meant 'Dirty' hahahhahahahahhaha. Thats a true story too...

Answer 8

I never met people that didnt know what they meant..
But I have met a girl that had the japanese sign for love on her shoulder and it was written very badly...<_<

Answer 9

because they are fads. people always say tattoos are fads but the style of tattoo that many people get are fads.

Answer 10

I think it's kind of dumb too....I met some guy one time that thought that he had his whole name on his back in Chinese....and there is no alpahbet in Chinese so he had some random sentence sprawled across his whole back.