Wedding Blog
The movie “The Secret Life of Bees” based on the Sue Monk Kidd novel is now out in theaters, and so we thought we’d do a fun little feature this week where some of the bees share some fun and quirky “secrets” about themselves.
I’ll kick the series off with a huge secret of mine that Mr. Penguin doesn’t even know. But now that we’re married, I figured that it’s about time he knew! Okay, I still pray he doesn’t read this. 
As some of you may already know, I grew up a die-hard Spice Girls fan, and my love for the Fab 5 has not waned in the slightest over the years. I recently got to see them in concert in Las Vegas on their reunion tour!
When I was 19, I went so far as to get a “Girl Power” tattoo on the small of my back (a tramp stamp, if you will).
Or, so I thought.
I took Japanese for 3 years in high school, and thought I had the basics of the language down pretty well. When we were freshmen in college, my friend Starla and I decided that for our first birthdays living away from our parents, we’d get tattoos. Naturally, we wanted to get tattoos that reflected our personalities; she got a star, and I wanted to get a tattoo just like Sporty Spice that read “woman strength” or “girl power” in Japanese.
[image]
We sauntered into a not-so-carefully chosen tattoo parlor on Sunset Blvd. in LA, at the ripe age of 19, and I handed the artist my handwritten interpretation of “Girl Power”:
Or, so I thought. Because a wrong flick of the hook on the “Power” character (the bottom character), I accidentally gave the artist this instead:
And the bottom set of characters were what I got. Not “Girl Power” but instead, “Girl Nine”. Number 9. Numero Nueve.
Do I regret my “Girl Power” tattoo? No. “Girl 9″? Okay, yes, of course I regret that. I often consider getting another tattoo to cover it, but I still want it to read or incorporate “Girl Power” in some way.
So, you may often see those cliche Kanji tattoos on people, and wonder how many people out there have tattoos that say something utterly ridiculous and they don’t even know it. Well I’ve got one, and I happen to know it. I’ve kept it a good secret thus far, and have done a careful job of not bending over in front of Japanese people while wearing low riders.
Share your stories of shameful tattoo blunders (yours, or others) in the comments!
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Share this post: Secret Life of Bees: Penguin Edition
that was funny!
My fiance’s grandpa got his name tattooed on his bicep “back in the day”. Now, 50 years later, his name is unreadable (looks more like a greenish-blue blob) and is closer to his elbow than his bicep!
Sorry but that is hilarious! Girl 9 sounds kind of cool though.
Dh and I were living in Europe when he tore his rotator cuff. While in the ER, we see a very drunk soldier with a huge kanji style tattoo on his back. We are both staring at it, examining it (as we are both fluent Japanese speakers) when he catches us and comments. Dh asks if he knows what it means and the drunk soldier pops off with “Crazy-I’m crazy like a fox”. I shake my head and reply “Yes, it says you’re crazy but not like a fox. It says that you are crazy from syphilis”
tell people it has something to do with Title IX…fits right in with your girl power theme!
Pengy, that’s hilarious. At least 9 is a very auspicious number in many Asian cultures. In Chinese, it means long life, which is close to girl power, right? You could also tell people it means “girl forever,” which is what I’d like tattooed on me now that I’m old. ;-P
@Donna: ROFLOL.
Hey Babe,
These characters are actually Chinese. Both the Japanese and Korean use Chinese characters in addition to simplified characters. In Mandarin, it’s pronounced “nu li”. To correct/perfect your tattoo, you could get the “LI” (strength) character adjacent to the “NU” (girl) and leave the 9 “JIU” below. In Chinese, the number 9 represents longevity (because it shares the same sound as the word for longlasting) and the 9 forms of the dragon which is a symbol for power.
not to split hairs, but those characters are also the actual kanji used in japanese. a lot of kanji is similar, if not exactly the same, as the chinese characters… so, it actually is japanese kanji, too. 
@Mrs. Spider: great idea Mrs. Spider!
Mr. P also has a kanji tattoo. He said he did the research and it actually says friendship and integrity, I hope he is right! If not, it is probably best we don’t know
Haha. Awww. I always wanted that girl power tattoo myself, but I haven’t gone through with it yet
Sooooo funny. I can hear Ginger saying “Girl Power. What dju know ’bout it?” from the movie. hahahahahahahahaha
@Linda: actually, Kanji translates to mean “Han Characters” because they are Chinese characters. Japanese also use hiragana and katakana.
my sister got her son’s name in korean [hangul] tatted on her as written by our mom, but she tends to group some of her characters together so the tattoer misread it flipped a character so it’s misspelled. my mom saw it one day and was mad that my sister [who was in her 20s at the time] got it and then even more mad when she noticed it was misspelled!
Your story is so funny it reminded me of my best friend’s tattoo! She came up to visit me for a week and we decided to get tattoos together. We had both lived in Japan and I had kept up with my studying so I wrote out Kanji for Power, Strength (something along those lines) and she was so proud after it was finished. When we got back to my place, I was putting away my Kanji book when I realized I had hooked one of hers the wrong way and it now read “Tiny Strength”. We laughed forever about that b/c she is only 5′ tall and to this day she has never changed the tattoo.
LOVE IT! So funny.
This is a fabulous secret - thank you for kicking this series off right! Now I just have to go figure out what embarrassing secrets I’ll be able to share.
doode, i remember years ago when stores were selling lots of clothes with asian characters on them. while shopping, MOH and i came across this one shirt that was COVERED with chinese words. they read “dog monkey dog dog knife foreign five monkey dog horse” I.SWEAR. now i think i shoulda bought that shirt and see how spider can ‘work it’ for me.
About 2 years ago I met a girl who had just gotten her astrological symbol tattooed on her neck. Not even thinking before I spoke, I explained to her that really, that wasn’t her astrological symbol as the common “dates” for a sign were set about 2000 years ago and have shifted significantly since then. She looked at me and asked “You mean im not really a taurus?” Again, not thinking first, I just told her “Nope.” She ran off crying and everyone just stared at me like I was the biggest wench ever. I just sat there like “what? its true!” Whoops.
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Totally unrelated, but I don’t think I ever did thank you for your recommendation of Excellence Playa Mujeres. It was such a lovely place, so quiet, private and relaxing. Like you, we probably wouldn’t get our own pool on our roof deck like you…but it was fun this one time. Everyone was accommodating our whole trip….at least until our last day so that would be the only downside we saw. We decided that we wanted to stay one more day, but to keep the same room they wouldn’t let us keep the price we booked our room at (we took advantage of 25% on their site in July). So, after like a whole wasted day back and forth between them and Expedia, they made us switch rooms because we refused to pay full price for that room. We were upset because we were already in that room and no one was coming into it. So, they ended up having to clean 2 different rooms which was sad. Either way, it’s a great place…here’s our pics (some aren’t so cute, but oh well [= ) http://flickr.com/photos/anthonylinda/sets/72157607441419713/
@Lillindy: That’s so great to hear!!! I’m glad you had a great time (and sorry to hear about the last day… how dissapointing!!!) It really was the ultimate in relaxation for us too! I think a really great deal for the price. Congrats on your wedding AND honeymoon!
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Yeah, but the dragon is also a male symbol.
I don’t know how you’re going to fix that. good luck!
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Mrs. Penguin, Northern California
Age and Occupation: 27, Weddingbee Editor in Chief
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Doctor of Physical Therapy
Engagement Date: January 29, 2007
Wedding Date: June 7, 2008
Blogging Since: September 14, 2007
Venue: Winery in the Gold Country
About Me: I love the Spice Girls, dogs with underbites, bean burritos, making messes, high fives, avoiding showers, crossword puzzles, blogs, weddings, and blogs about weddings!
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