It reminds me of a time several years ago when I was working at Blue Cross. I was in line in the cafeteria and there was a lady with a black katakana tatoo on her neck! It didn't stick out so bad because she was black but it still seemed kind of odd. Of course I could read it; it said "Thomas." So I said to her, "Who's Thomas?" She was surprised that I could read it and happy to discover that it said what it was supposed to say. Apparently it was her boyfriend's name and she had had the tattoo done with nobody involved knowing anything about Japanese. I assume they got the translation out of a book or something.

Makes me want to put together a book of kanji, hiragana, katakana tattoos but just make them up. It would be the same difference since nobody could understand them anyway. But then I'd get sued for malpractice or liability.