Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2013 January 24

= January 24 =

Identify three (Japanese?) characters in Brian Austin Green tattoo?
Are the three letters visible in  or at 31:59 of episode 06 of the 02 season of the Sarah Chronicles on Brian Austin Green's right breast from the Klingon, or some other identifiable alphabet? If so, do they signify B A G or something else? Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 05:30, 24 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Per http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoo/celeb-green-brian.htm, "Green's tattoos consist of an Aztec thunderbird design on right shoulder, cross and JOHN 3:16 on left shoulder, tattoo on chest with Chinese symbol for his name, large dragon on his right forearm, blue & white flames on his left bicep, his son's name Kassius in old English script on his left forearm." So, I think at least purportedly that would correspond to the Chinese? (Not mentioned, but that's his wife's signature over his left pectoral.) - Nunh-huh 05:51, 24 January 2013 (UTC)  Another commentator on another site avers: 'the “Chinese symbol of his name on chest” is not Chinese; it’s Japanese, and it means “green” as in the color, not his name.' - Nunh-huh 05:53, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * And using Google translate, one of the alternatives for "green" in Japanese is グリーン, which I guess you can sort of kind of make correspond to what's in the picture. - Nunh-huh 05:56, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * So you are saying the three symbols on his right breast are the hirigana/katakana or such for aoi? The wikipedia font I am seeing doesn't look very close to the image. μηδείς (talk) 06:00, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * It's written in hiragana. みどり. Oda Mari (talk) 06:09, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * That's a much better match, and you have to allow for stretchable skin and a possibly drunk tattoo artist. - Nunh-huh 06:13, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I take it then that it is aoi? G Translate suggests midori.  (I may sound more competent than I am.)  I was just guessing that, especially as it has three syllables. Is there a name for the "font" that's used or a wikipedia resource or other that will make it easy for me as a non-reader of Japanese to parse the symbols? μηδείς (talk) 06:15, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * It's midori. See Mi (kana), ど and Ri (kana). If you have ja fonts on your computer, you can select your favorite one on your browser. Oda Mari (talk) 06:38, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * There isn't anything special or unusual about the "font" used in the tattoo, it's just hard to see the detail in that low-res image. There is a clearer one at http://www.stylebistro.com/lookbooks/men/Lettering+Tattoo (scroll down to the second-from-bottom row). 86.128.4.118 (talk) 14:56, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * The tattoo looks like a child's clumsy handwriting to me. Oda Mari (talk) 16:38, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Medeis, what do you mean by "aoi"? Marco polo (talk) 22:14, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Ao (color). See also Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution and the downloadable resources attached to it. μηδείς (talk) 22:36, 24 January 2013 (UTC)