Kanji tattoos are not always what they seem.

The world of tatoos is not one I am involved in (though I do know a tatooist or two and have many friends and a son who have them) but it is fair to say that in the spiritual community many people do have and will have tatoos of a spiritual nature and that a high proportion of them will incorporate Kanji scripts and even Gaelic.  
For years I have said that people who have Kanji script tattooed on their bodies need to be careful as, unless you can read and write in Kanji how do you know that what you have permanently placed their isn't just a rude word, or something other than what it's meant to be, or worse something really offensive to those that can actually read it!
Well now it's official!, the article posted today in the DM online shows the results of being stupid enough to have this done without properly researching the word or phrase you want to have placed on yourself. 
Don't get me wrong, while I personally wouldn't ever have a tattoo, I respect another's right to choose to do so and I respect their right to chose to have one in a language different to their mother tongue, but for goodness sake have the good sense to research it properly! It is not hard to get proper translations of a language nowadays, just pop into your local language school or go to the library and read a few books on script or ask a trusted friend of that origin to check it for you (don't, for goodness sake be foolish enough to just blindly put a script or any foreign language from a greetings card or ornament on yourself) 
All it can take to change the whole meaning of some of these words is something as stupidly simple as changing the angle of a line, putting an e instead of an é, reversing the i and the e in some french words can completely change the meaning of the word and  even inadvertently reversing a script in tracing it can do the same (as we see in Farberov's article. If this happens you are stuck with it permanently so be careful, be very careful and check, double-check and treble-check so you can be certain that the statement you are making is actually the statement you intended to make. 
Two of the main things you could do is to always go to a reputable tattooist and to make sure you have the script, word etc, that you want clearly written down on a piece of paper and take a friend along to watch it going on as you are often unable to see the actual tattoo being done due to where on your body you want it placed. 

For the full article follow link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2190806/Golden-Pig-Coffin-Man-Noodles-When-Asian-tattoos-dont-turn-quite-planned.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-ebay-supernatural-ban-20120816,0,6214536.story

EBay bans supernatural sales of magic spells, potions, hexes

www.latimes.com

Making a profit on the occult arts? Cultivating a loyal customer base for potions, magic spells and psychic readings? Not on EBay, you’re not.

Okay, on the face of it this article had me preparing to hex someone for unfair discrimination then I followed the link and read the article. What followed was a salutary lesson in read first, react later.

It seems at first glance that e-bay have gone anti-witch, but what they have actually done is gotten rid of some categories in the metaphysical/esoteric section leaving us with access to the,quote: " items that have a tangible value for the item itself and may also be used in metaphysical rites and practices (ie  jewellery, crystals, incense, candles, and books)". Now I don't know about anybody else but it is my understanding that the whole aim of E-bay is to provide a place for people to sell tangible, physical items to other people and also that as the 'Market Managers' E-bay have the right to decide who they are prepared to 'let a stall' in their virtual marketplace.

The fact is, that the headline suggests that E-bay have gone anti-witch when in fact they have just exercised their right to amend the parameters of what can and can't be sold on their site, it can only be true to say they are discriminating against us if it can be found that they are allowing Catholics, Hindus, Muslims, etc, etc to 'sell' prayers and blessings on the site.

Unless or until someone can show me that this is the case then I defend the right of those at E-bay to set those limits and I hope everyone who reads this will read the article in full before deciding for themselves whether or not they agree with me on that one.