Can somebody help me translate a tattoo, please?

[lucifer82]

Greetings to all. I was wondering if somebody could help me translate a tattoo? I must stress, the picture is not the clearest. I've had to do all sorts (resize, change contrast, add brightness etc) just to make the image somewhat visible. I've tried on another Japanese community forum to get some help, but as of yet, no-one's come through for me.

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/475/a1aw.jpg

Any help will be gratefully appreciated.
Thanks,
Liam.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by lucifer82

Greetings to all. I was wondering if somebody could help me translate a tattoo? I must stress, the picture is not the clearest. I've had to do all sorts (resize, change contrast, add brightness etc) just to make the image somewhat visible. I've tried on another Japanese community forum to get some help, but as of yet, no-one's come through for me.

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/475/a1aw.jpg

Any help will be gratefully appreciated.
Thanks,
Liam.

Did you take this picture surreptitiously?

I suspect only a native can help—the quality is so poor it probably takes a native's eye to make out this awful quality photo.

[lucifer82]

Haha. Yeah, not a great picture, I know. I didn't take the photo. Believe it or not, the photo was worse before I edited it a little bit. But I'm no whizz when it comes to photo software and that's the best I could do.
I've posted on another forum and some has mentioned that they seem to think that rather than being Japanese, it's Chinese. So, now I'm even more confused.

[MMM]

Is this from a photo you took, or is it something from a movie? Is there another way to see it? What is the source?

[lucifer82]

It was originally from a poster. I've been messing about with some image editing software... does this seem any better?

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5524/abcvy.jpg

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by lucifer82

Greetings to all. I was wondering if somebody could help me translate a tattoo? I must stress, the picture is not the clearest. I've had to do all sorts (resize, change contrast, add brightness etc) just to make the image somewhat visible. I've tried on another Japanese community forum to get some help, but as of yet, no-one's come through for me.

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/475/a1aw.jpg

Any help will be gratefully appreciated.
Thanks,
Liam.

The first character is 功. That's the only thing I can think of. The second one looks like 康 to me. It looks like it has the same radical, and the bottom of the inside has the "starburst" four strokes (I'm not sure what to call it, but it's the same thing as in the bottom right of 渋, except there is a vertical line extending through the inside of the radical. That's my guess.

The final stroke of the last character looks to me like something written by a person who can't write kanji.

[lucifer82]

Would you say it is definitely Japanese?

[MMM]

Originally Posted by lucifer82

Would you say it is definitely Japanese?

Let's take a step back. What is the poster of? Can you share the poster?

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by MMM

Let's take a step back. What is the poster of? Can you share the poster?

This is what I was just about to ask. Good thinking, MMM.

[lucifer82]

No. I don't have it anymore. I've looked for it on the web, but to no avail. This image is about a year or two old.

Can I be blunt? I can't pretend I know anything about the Japanese language, whether that be it's structure or it's grammar. I know nothing. I was thinking, as you look at the photo, the symbol/character on the right hand side, the one which seems most clear to me. Does that symbol make a sound or... I don't even know how to explain what I mean, because I don't have any knowledge of the language.

Wait, for example my name is Anthony. Could you write that for me in Japanese?