tatoo "I deserve it"

Androidus · 10 Aug 2023

Hi,
I would like to ask for your help. My wife started to learn Japanese. She is not good yet, and I want to surprise her with a tattoo saying "I deserve it" in Japanese. I don't speak Japanese at all, thought it would be a good idea to translate it online. Now I realize Japanese is so complex and so much different, so it's not working that way. So, I need help. What would be the best way to say "I deserve it" when you print it on your arm as a lady? Thank you for your help

Majestic · 10 Aug 2023

Androidus said:
"I deserve it"

I would give a slight caution that inside jokes can translate very poorly into Japanese, because the cultures are so different and humor is so different.

Having said that: I would go with 自業自得, which literally is something like "my own actions, my own just deserts" or, to put it more colloquially,
"I ****** around and I found out". In the past the connotation wasn't always negative, and it could be used in a positive way ("honest work will lead to just rewards" kind of thing - almost Ben Franklin-ish). But nowadays it is always negative or ironic, and always means someone mucked around and got what they deserved.

Note there is no "I" in that sentence - it would be implied or understood from the context. There are other ways to say this, but they are all variations on this 4-character idiom.

mdchachi · 10 Aug 2023

Androidus said:
Hi,
I would like to ask for your help. My wife started to learn Japanese. She is not good yet, and I want to surprise her with a tattoo saying "I deserve it" in Japanese. I don't speak Japanese at all, thought it would be a good idea to translate it online. Now I realize Japanese is so complex and so much different, so it's not working that way. So, I need help. What would be the best way to say "I deserve it" when you print it on your arm as a lady? Thank you for your help

Wait, you're gifting her a tattoo that she'll put on her body? Get her the tattoo gift voucher and let her choose the tattoo itself.

As for the contents, even in English this is vague. "I deserve it" in the sense of "I deserve to be punished" or "I deserve the karma coming to me"?
Or "I deserve (success or some other good thing)"?

Androidus · 11 Aug 2023

Majestic said:
I would give a slight caution that inside jokes can translate very poorly into Japanese, because the cultures are so different and humor is so different.

Having said that: I would go with 自業自得, which literally is something like "my own actions, my own just deserts" or, to put it more colloquially,
"I ****** around and I found out". In the past the connotation wasn't always negative, and it could be used in a positive way ("honest work will lead to just rewards" kind of thing - almost Ben Franklin-ish). But nowadays it is always negative or ironic, and always means someone mucked around and got what they deserved.

Note there is no "I" in that sentence - it would be implied or understood from the context. There are other ways to say this, but they are all variations on this 4-character idiom.

Thank you for your help and thank you for the caution. I have already realized the problem, that is why I'm here. Possible result is that I wont suggest a Japanese tattoo at all. About the meaning: I was talking about "I deserve it" as "I am good enough to accept things life offers to me" so it would be something to strengthen self-confidence.

Androidus · 11 Aug 2023

mdchachi said:
Wait, you're gifting her a tattoo that she'll put on her body? Get her the tattoo gift voucher and let her choose the tattoo itself.

As for the contents, even in English this is vague. "I deserve it" in the sense of "I deserve to be punished" or "I deserve the karma coming to me"?
Or "I deserve (success or some other good thing)"?

Thank you for helping. Yes, it's her body. And I meant the third one, the positive one. It's OK if it means several things in Japanese (just as in English or Hungarian), basically she will be the only one around who understands it (and she will know how to understand it), and that is exactly the trick I would like to accomplish.

Majestic · 11 Aug 2023

Androidus said:
And I meant the third one, the positive one.

OK - in this case, disregard what I said above. A positive message will require a different Japanese phrase. I'll have to think on this a bit, as these kinds of self-affirming statements are typically avoided/shunned in Japanese.

mdchachi · 11 Aug 2023

Majestic said:
OK - in this case, disregard what I said above. A positive message will require a different Japanese phrase. I'll have to think on this a bit, as these kinds of self-affirming statements are typically avoided/shunned in Japanese.

How about ふさわしい which can mean worthy or deserving?

Mikawa Ossan · 11 Aug 2023

My advice about the tattoo is that she should wait on getting one in Japanese until she understands what it means before the ink is in her. As it stands, if she gets the tattoo that you recommend, she won't really understand what it means. She'll just know what you tell her it means, and you don't even really know. You just know what some people on the internet told you. It could be that we're giving you bad advice.

I'll admit that I'm pretty anti-tattoo in general, but all the more-so when it comes to tattoos in a language that the recipient does not understand.

Androidus · 13 Aug 2023

Majestic said:
You'd want your tattoo to be an authentic phrase/idiom - otherwise its going to look cringy and trashy just having some Japanese words inked on you. I mean, its not the 1990s anymore, right? Maybe something like

冷静沈着 (reisei chinchaku)

which incorporates both the idea of calmness and focus. BUT, I am not a native speaker so you would want to have that validated by a native Japanese speaker.

I'm afraid that is too far from what I wanted. Now I realize it's too complicated, too risky. Thank you for your help, operation cancelled.

tatoo "I deserve it"

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