If you want to get an exotic tattoo in a foreign tongue, you had best be sure of the translation.

We all know tattoos are the rage in the USA, but were you aware that tattoo mistranslation is a recognized problem?

Even the rich and the famous have been the “victims” of poorly-translated tattoos. An MTV article shows how 7 major celebrities came out awkwardly etched, linguistically speaking.

One often-cited example is Rihanna’s neck tattoo that reads “rebelle fleur” – a somewhat incorrect French translation of “rebel flower.”

I say “somewhat” because, while it is true that adjectives are normally placed after the noun in French, they can occasionally precede, especially in literature, for emphasis. “Fleur rebelle” would certainly be a much better standard translation, but you never know -- maybe Rihanna’s tattoo artist was taking poetic license.

In any case, one has to wonder why stars who have everything can’t spring the money to have their tattoo translation plan checked out by a qualified language service provider!

Betty Carlson

See Also

• Language Translation, Inc.
  A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.