Tatoos are one of the longest lasting commitments that you can get in life. Once a tattoo has been tattooed onto your body, then there’s no magic eraser which will allow you to easily remove the tattoo if you fall out of love with it. Laser surgery is out of the budget for most ‘normal’ people (besides being an incredibly laborious and painful procedure).

As such, it’s essential that you are happy with what is tattooed onto your body.

Share a thought therefore for those individuals who have been through into a literal nightmare through poor and inaccurate tattoo translations.

Lee Becks, UK

Lee Becks was shocked to hear that his tattoo had been inaccurately (and possibly maliciously) translated by the tattoo artist. He had paid almost £100 to have ‘Love, Honour and Obey’ tattooed onto his arm in Chinese characters. Instead, the tattoo artist decided to translate and tattoo his request as ‘At the end of the Day, this is an Ugly Boy’. This poor translation has resulted in Lee being mocked and laughed at by a number of people who understand the Chinese characters. Lee will now have to finance up to £600 to get this terrible tattoo translation removed.

Vince Mattingley, UK

Vince had hoped to have a translation of his name tattooed onto his arm in Chinese characters. Unfortunately, his request was translated as ‘Coca-Cola’ and tattooed onto his arm accordingly.

Anne Tenbury, USA

Anne has hoped to have a translation of ‘Freedom’ tattooed on to her arm. Instead, the tattoo artist had this request translated as ‘Free Love’ and tattooed accordingly. The connotations of this inaccurate tattoo translation need little explanation……

These stories make it clear why the translation of any tattoo should always be taken extremely seriously. As such, here are a couple of key tips:

  • Always ensure that your tattoo translation has been carried out by fully qualified translators
  • Do not rely on friends who ‘claim’ to be fully conversant with another language or bilingual. Even someone who is bilingual may not be fully successful in transliterating or translating something for you ….

Get your name translated > Tattoo Translation.

Related articles: