Regardless what one's option about Dan Brown, he is a well known author for his thriller fiction books. However, it seems he did not do a very thorough research before publishing Digital Fortress.





Linguaphiles in Livejournal have already pegged Dan Brown as an idiot.

Alan and I are annoyed with Dan Brown, especially considering he is interested in cryptography.

The excerpt is so painful and moronic quoting about "Mandarin symbols" and "Kanji language", where there is no such thing as "Mandarin symbols" or "Kanji language". Mandarin is a spoken oral dialect, and Kanji is part of Japanese writing system.

Alan also had this to say:

Apparently Dan Brown is just as ignorant as those tattoo yahoos. He thinks you can just "translate symbols" and have it make sense. Any code based on the translation of single characters from Chinese or Japanese to English, and then subjecting this to subsequent processing is bound to fail because of multiple meanings. (Sorry, Dan, but just picking the "Kanji" rather than the "Mandarin" meanings does not solve the problem.) Simply sending a coded message that included plaintext Chinese or Japanese would be such a stupid code because any translator could intercept and read it. And the topper is the assumption that someone could possibly translate something written in Chinese or Japanese out of sequence. Try to read any English text scrambled out of order! If it is to be possibly deciphered, first the message has to be put into proper order.

How to design a maori shoulder tattoo: Step four

I completely filled the tattoo sketch with maori, tribal and polynesian style shapes.
The design is finished in pencil and at this stage it's not very clean and tight.
















Here's the combined picture of both sides of the tattoo fitting perfectly and seamless:













Now I use a quality marker with a tip of 2mm, and start tracing the entire design.
After a few years of practise a got quite a steady hand for drawing straight sharp lines.

Tomorrow I post the entire Maori shoulder tattoo design.

Kind regards, Mark Storm
www.storm3d.com

How to design a maori shoulder tattoo: Step three

The ferns and maori shapes like curles are ready now.
Then I start sketching and filling the empty spaces in the design.
I like to use triangles, squares and repeating shapes, so the tattoo will have some rythm and flow to it.















To make the tattoo design fit around the upper arm, I have to make sure the two sides of the drawing line up exactly and make a seamless fit.

This can be done like this: First design one side of your shoulder tattoo. Just make the tribal shapes and lines you wish.
Then scan this and print it to a sheet of paper.
Cut the shape and put the printed paper on the other side of the design, aligning with the other border.

Tomorrow I will illustrate this drawing technique with an example image.

See more of my custom maori and tribal tattoo designs

Questions? Just let me know!

Kind regards, Mark Storm

How to design a maori shoulder tattoo: Step two

When the first rough outline of the shoulder tattoo is set, I try to make some nice flowing curls and koru shapes.
The koru fern is a representation of peace and tranquility along with a strong sense of regrowth or new beginnings.

I like to combine different tribal tattoo elements, like triangles and Polynesian style signs and tattoo shapes.

Here's the picture of the second step:
















Tomorrow I will post the next step. Subscribe to my feed to keep updated.

Kind regards, Mark Storm
www.storm3d.com

How to design a maori shoulder tattoo: Step one

This is the first step in designing a Maori style tattoo for the shoulder.

Materials used:

- A3 paper (29,7 x 42 cm) 200 grams/m2
- B1 pencil
- Eraser
- Ruler

The measurements for the tattoo depend on the size of a persons arm and shoulder.

First I draw the border of the design. A circle in the middle will cover the shoulder.
The bottom shape will wrap around the biceps and will fit seamless when ready.

















Next image will be posted soon.

Kind regards,

Mark Storm
www.storm3d.com

How to draw a Maori tribal shoulder tattoo

Hi!

I have been working on a new custom tattoo piece, and I would like to show you a few photo's of the design process.

It's a step by step example, first I make a rough sketch with pencil and I tweak and alter it till the customer is satisfied with the design.
Then I trace the lines and shapes with a black marker.

I will post the pictures soon.

Kind regards, Mark Storm
info@storm3d.com
www.storm3d.com

from: xxxxxxxx@ucmo.edu
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 12:09 AM
subject: kanji paranoia

Hi! I got this tattoo a little over a year ago. It's supposed to mean "pure child", as I am a Christian. My tattoo artist is very careful and we even referenced a Japanese children's workbook to make sure that's what it meant.

I stumbled onto your site and now I am a little paranoid. Can you set my mind at ease?

I attached a pic :)it's my boobs, hope you don't mind. it's a little blue Kanji on my left boobie.

Thanks!




First of all, Alan and I welcome boobies!

I have always wanted Cornershop's Brimful of Asha as one of my party anthems, especially the chorus says "everybody needs a bosom for pillow, everybody needs a bosom."

Although 清子 are technically translated as "pure" & "child". A Japanese person would surely first assume that 清子 tattooed on a woman is supposed to be the common Japanese girl's name Kiyoko. But then the cognitive dissonance would set in.

Judging from certain, er, attributes of the tattooed subject, we would have to assume that she is not ethnically Japanese, so the question arises: why does she have a Japanese name?

Anyway, as a name, 清子 can be read several different ways including, in order from most to least common: Kiyoko, Seiko, Sugako, Sayako, Sukako.

Matter of fact, most Japanese would think this is a tattoo paying homage to their former princess 黒田清子, Sayako Kuroda.

The name Ed Hardy probably does not mean much to us, unless you have stepped into high end boutique shops.

Don Ed Hardy used to be a tattooist (or still is), but in these days, he has whored out his name and artistic integrity to hawk women hand bags and other fashion garbs.



The phrase 死先侮辱 printed on this Ed Hardy handbag was intended to represent "die before dishonor", however it is gibberish in Japanese. This phrase is not even close in Chinese. It is read as "die first, insult (later)".

The printed phrase sounded more familiar to the practice of 鞭尸, a punishment where buried body is unearthed and whipped in front of his/her surviving family members, than "die before dishonor". Plus, Chinese already have an idiom, 寧死不屈.

This gets better after I received this email:

from: Rachel S.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 6:06 PM
subject: Tattoos, do they really mean this?

Hi, a guy I went to high school posted this picture of his new tattoo on Facebook and I was wondering if they really mean what he claims them to say.

The tattoo he says it reads, "Death before dishonor."




Someone actually copied the phrase from Ed Hardy's pseudo-Japanese handbag and tattooed on himself.

I have received many emails about some idiot posting this photo in BME's tattoo gallery (Feb. 24, 2009):


http://www.bmeink.com/A90224/high/fxr2-samurai.jpg

The caption says:

Samurai
While spending some time in Japan, I was lucky enough to get the kanji for "Dragon soul" tattooed on my arm at a studio in Tokyo. The artist helped me translate the phrase into kanji.
(Tokyo, JP)

Hmm.... but does he really think it means "Samurai" or "Dragon soul"? The story is a bit inconsistent. Or does he really know his tattoo 外人 really means "foreigner" and is he just yanking our chains?

Anyway, it's funny either way.

Final traced tattoo drawings in Maori style

Hi,

Once a pencil sketch is completed, I trace the image with a black marker and erase all pencil stripes.
The drawings are scanned at 300 DPI and optimized in Photoshop CS3.
Here are the finalized images of the surfer tattoo design and the chest design both in Maori style.



Any questions or comments? Please let me know!

In the week ahead I will be working on 2 other custom designs, one tattoo design for the calf and a Maori chest piece.
You'll see the sketches ASAP.

Kind regards,

Mark Storm
info@storm3d.com
www.storm3d.com

If you ever wanted to know when first misuse of Chinese character ever started in Western culture, I may just have the answer for you.

from: Nam See Kim
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 2:24 AM
subject: the history of misuse of chinese characters

Hello Tian,

My name is Nam-See Kim, Korean, studying in Germany.

In Cultural studies of Humboldt University Berlin I wrote my doctoral thesis about the western reception of Chinese characters since 16th century. I find your blog very interesting.

I would like to send you some images which show how long is the history of "misuse of Chinese characters in western culture".

The first Image of "Chinese characters" comes from the Book by Martino Martini, "Sinicae historiae decas prima" in 1658, page 23.

The second from the book of Bernardino de Escalante in 1577, where the so called "Chinese characters" introduced for the first time to Western world.

The third image is the most famous from "China Illustrata" by Athanasius Kircher in 1667.

Greetings,

Nam-See Kim