Fast forward to 2012, Dr. Victor Mair met the young lady in person:
So I asked Cindy what she thought the tattooed symbols running down her neck and spine meant. She replied:
The bottom two were supposed to be success� then respect.
Oh well. Works either way. It is what it is. You can put whatever name you want.
Queen OF The World is what I prefer.
I followed up by asking Cindy what she thought the second, very unusual, symbol meant. She said, "Oh, that's just a cross for Jesus."
Tentatively, this is what I had to work with:
1. mu ? ("mother")
2. zi ? ("child"), or perhaps some kind of cross
3. w� ? ("thing, object")
4. gu� ? ("precious; expensive")
With considerable effort, I could get that to mean "Mother and child are precious things." But I was not satisfied with this interpretation, both because of my uncertainty over the second symbol and because it required me to accept a strained interpretation of the final two characters.
(Continue reading at Language Log)
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