MCLC: World Cup tattoos

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Nick Kaldis <nkaldis at gmail.com>
Subject: World Cup tattoos
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Source: Shanghaiist (6/27/14):
http://shanghaiist.com/2014/06/27/football-players-tattoos.php

LOOK: The meaning behind World Cup footballers' Chinese tattoos
By Jennifer Hui

As the 2014 World Cup kicks on, footie fans in China have been especially
observant of the Chinese characters splashed across the, ahem,
hard-to-miss muscles of several players, and many netizens have taken to
forums to ponder the intended meaning of each player's ink. We've picked
out a few to oglebreak down.The Greek striker Theofanis Gekas has a tattoo
of five Chinese characters on the inside of his right arm—寒冷殺人魔—which
would translate to "cold-blooded killer" or "cold-blooded killing demon".
If tattoos really represent one’s personality, we're hoping Theofanis is
telling us that he is a cool killer for his impressive scoring skills and
not satan incarnate.

Spanish defender Sergio Ramos also has a Chinese character tattooed behind
his ear (狼) which simply means "wolf".

The tattoo seen on the right arm of Fredy Guarin from Colombia is a bit
more inexplicable. The characters 丹尼宗, as Kotaku's Eric Jou points out
<http://kotaku.com/the-world-cup-of-iffy-japanese-and-chinese-tattoos-15951
96710>, are most likely meant to be read phonetically as the Chinese name
Danny Zong. So, should he be called Fredy or Danny? It's all very unclear
<http://www.ballpo.com/players/13850.html>.

The most baffling Chinese character tattoo might belong to the former
Germany midfielder Torsten Frings. The five characters across his right
arm read: 龙蛇吉勇羊, or, "dragon, snake, fortune, brave, sheep". He also
said 
that he has a tattoo reading 酸甜鸭子7.99欧元 on his back, meaning "sweet
and 
sour duck 7.99 euro". We can only imagine the significance attached, but
we don't want to.

Still, we mustn't ignore the many meaningful tattoos scrawled across
Western football players, those appearing in this 2014 World Cup or those
who do not.

Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic has a Chinese character tattoo written as
大壯 吉 家人 信, signifying “great strength, luck, family and faith”.

Also, Dimitar Berbatov from Bulgaria, whose team cannot enter this 2014
world's biggest sporting event, also has a tattoo reading 百無禁忌, or “no
holds barred” ("no restrictions").

Kevin Prince Boateng also has five words inked across his right side: 家族,
健
康, 愛, 成功, and 信任, meaning "family, health, love, success and trust".

Indeed, the world-famous English former footballer David Beckham is
well-known in China for his ink. During a talk at Peking University last
year, he lifted his shirt to show students the tattoo on his left flank, a
famous Chinese saying translated to: “Life and death are determined by
fate, rank and riches decreed by Heaven” (生死有命富貴由天).

[Images Via Kotaku, Msn, Xaluan, tattoo-best-pictures.blogspot, ibnlive]