It’s all well and good to snigger at “Engrish” — weird, random Englishoid phrases printed on Japanese garmets and packaging, but check this out: the Chicago Tribune went out and looked at the “Japanese” characters tattooed on five Chicagoans and had them translated, then compared the results with what the bearers thought their ink meant.
* What he thinks his tattoo says: “strength” and “courage.”
* What it actually says: The left part of the symbol appears to say “dog,” while the right part conveys something along the lines of “time moving into the past.” Smushed together, the two symbols amount to gibberish.
(via MeFi)