I have always greatly admired people who have tattoos in a foreign language. Some friends of mine have tattoos in Chinese or Japanese. Now, although I am a linguist and a translator, I don't speak (or read) Chinese or Japanese. And neither do these friends. Which is why I admire their bravery.

The Max Planck Forschung, a German research body, were equally brave. They wanted an elegant Chinese poem to go on the cover of their learned journal. What did they actually end up printing? Let's just say there were red faces all round on their editorial board.

The moral? If you are going to use a translation for a tattoo on your body, for the front cover of a magazine, or for communicating with your clients, it is prudent to engage the services of skilled, qualified professional translators. Unless you feel brave....