Chinese Symbols

Chinese symbols are showing up more and more often in Western tattoos. Who does them? Where can you find them? And how do you know what they mean?

Chinese Symbol for Honor

Getting a Chinese Symbol Tattoo

Most tattoo artists will do Chinese symbols, either alone or as part of a larger design. In many shops, you can choose from a selection of flash art that includes Chinese lettering. Often, the samples will include a translation of the symbol.

However, the flash symbols aren't always drawn correctly, and the meaning isn't always what the samples say it is. Reputable tattoo artists will either verify the symbols themselves or make it clear to clients that they don't read or understand Chinese, and thus can't make any promises.

Verifying the Translation

To see what can go wrong with Chinese symbols in tattoos, visit HanziSmatter.com. Maintained by a native Chinese speaker, this blog reports on embarrassing and funny tattoo gaffes. You'll find a young woman whose sexy back tattoo actually reads "Inferior Goods." There's also a karate student who thought his tattoo meant "strength," but later found out it means "small domestic animals." And then there's man who wanted "tank" as in the military vehicle… and wound up with "tank" as in "toilet."

How can you make sure your flash is correct before you have it tattooed? Your best bet is to find someone who knows Chinese and ask him or her. Make sure this person is able to read and write Chinese well. The symbols are complex, and someone who isn't truly fluent or hasn't read or written the language in a while might not get it right.

Dictionaries and Translation Services

If you don't have a Chinese friend, try a Chinese-English dictionary or search the web for help. If you use a dictionary, either a book on on-line, remember that the literal translations won't always have the connotation that you want. It's worth paying a translation service to make sure the symbol means what you think it does. Unfortunately, translation web sites come and go, and you can't always be sure the operators are the experts they claim to be. Services are usually inexpensive, so you may want to use two or three sites, just to make sure.

Here are some sites that offer translation for tattoos:

• Formosa Translation. The site owner claims to be a professional translator. Advice on tattoos is offered for free. There's also an extensive dictionary; click on an English word and it will show you the Chinese symbol, in five different calligraphic styles. The artwork is available for purchase.
• Transname.com. This site offers a searchable selection of symbols, plus translation services. The homepage says that the symbols are drawn by an expert calligrapher and that the translations are done by native Chinese speakers who were educated in Hong Kong and North America. Stock symbols and personalized translations are available for purchase.
• The Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center. The Learning Center, which gives classes in Chinese, also offers personalized translation and calligraphy for tattoo designs.

Getting the Look Right

Chinese calligraphy is an ancient art. The brush strokes must have a certain shape. Each part of a symbol must be in precise relation to the others. Western tattoo artists sometimes add their own artistic flair, which is fine with English letters, but artistic license can change the meaning of a Chinese character or even turn it into gibberish.

You can learn more about Chinese calligraphy at these sites:

• ThinkQuest.org, a site with educational materials aimed at schoolchildren. It has examples of the basic strokes.
• The Calligraphy page of the Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization, a source of information and images put together by experts at the University of Washington.
• Chinese Calligraphy, a page created by the Columbia University East Asian Curriculum Project. It has examples of different calligraphic styles plus instructions for beginners on how the lines should be drawn.

Japanese Characters

Kanji Flash - Respect

One type of written Japanese uses Chinese characters, which are called Kanji in Japanese. But Japan also has other writing systems. Hiragana and Katakana use simple characters to represent syllables and words. To uneducated eyes, these characters are easily confused with the Chinese symbols. Make sure that your Chinese symbol tattoo doesn't have other writing systems mixed in.

There are also simplified versions of the traditional Chinese characters, used in Chinese writing. Again, make sure that your tattoo does not confuse written languages and styles.

Picture Galleries with Chinese Symbols

Looking for examples of Chinese symbols in tattoos? Check out these galleries:

• BMEzine.com. Click on "tattoo photos/stories" and then select "Kanji tattoos."
• TattooDesigns.com. Click on "galleries." You'll find Kanji under "Eastern Culture."

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