About the Asian-style tattoos. I have "Love"
& "Mom" tattooed at the nape of my neck in Japanese Kanji characters because I love my mom, and it's something that I'll feel for the rest of my life. I also wanted to get something culturally symbolic, and being part Japanese myself, I thought Kanji letters were appropriate. I had brought a book with the characters I wanted, and the guy made a copy of it.

What annoys me a lot is when people get cultural letters/characters when they don't even know the significance of it. I remember a girl in my old dorm who got a tattoo. Her "Western" name is JENNIFER, and she thought that it'd be cute to get her "Hawaiian-ized" name, KINIPELA, tattooed in Old English on her lower back. What she didn't know was that KINI=flesh, and PELA=rotting, decomposing...therefore her "Hawaiian-ized" name means "rotting flesh". If you walk down Waikiki, many booths have things that tell you what your Western names mean in Hawaiian. However, what they fail to tell you is that they simply take your letters and give them a Hawaiian equivalent (there are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet). Usually these letters spell words that are nothing close to the figurative meaning of your given name.

This girl did not believe me until I showed her the words and their meanings in my Hawaiian dictionary. Needless to say, she was in tears that "rotting flesh" was tattooed on her body for life. Last I heard she spent $$$ to get that tattoo removed when she got back to Wisconsin. Still, she was the talk of the dorm for the whole semester.

I can only reiterate what has already been said on this board...do your research on what you really want, make sure it's meaningful...and try to get an idea of what the tattoo parlor's reputation is like. Good luck on your soon to be tattoo!

Oh--Allie and Kappa Girl, getting my tattoo was more painful that getting my tongue ring. I guess it just depends on where you get it--because I felt like I was being assaulted by rubber bands on that one spot. Maintaining that tongue ring during that first week was the most painful.

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*I'm an Alpha Gam...Yes I am, Yes I am!*

[This message has been edited by OohTeenyWahine (edited March 05, 2001).]