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What Does Your Kanji Tattoo Mean?

The mysterious and beautiful Kanji tattoos from Japan are rapidly becoming very popular in the Western world as those wishing to tattoo their name or a memorial on their shoulder or arm flock to the tattoo artist.

Kanji tattoos, however, have a built-in negative side that should be given serious consideration before putting one on your body.

One thing to remember is that Kanji tattoos come from a language that is not Western and the literal meanings you might be used to do not apply with Kanji. Kanji symbols do not represent individual characters, but are graphic depictions of complete ideas or concepts. What looks like a simple character could actually be more than 20 or 30 separate strokes and have several meanings, depending on the script style of Kanji used.

Kanji scripts have three styles of expression to consider when you are looking for the perfect Kanji tattoo for your body art.

Japanese Kanji characters and symbols originated in China and are used for nouns like peace, morning or determination. Kanji writing, over time, developed into part of the Japanese system of using ideograms to express whole concepts.

Katakana characters, on the other hand, are used for foreign words and names. Adjectives and grammar will be expressed with the Hiragana script.

Just wanting a name, yours or a loved one, as a tattoo would probably be done with Katakana characters, which easily convert from Japanese to Western names or initials without the more complicated underlying meanings found in the Kanji scripts.

Just visiting your tattoo parlor and picking out characters from a wall poster or book of designs could be a mistake. The letters that might represent your name could also represent complete thoughts that would be negative or belittling to your image.

They would be understandable only by those who speak Japanese, which, considering the numbers of Japanese businessmen & women in most industrial countries, should be a concern of yours if you are a business professional or planning on becoming one. If you believe your tattoo spells your name and don’t investigate the underlying total concept, you might also be wearing a tattoo that says you have “ugly dog breath,” for example. Your Japanese supervisor would not be impressed.

The point to remember here, before decorating your body with a tattoo you might regret, is to investigate your Kanji tattoo meanings BEFORE getting them permanently applied to your body. There’s several translation services online that can do the job for you. Spending a little time checking out the meanings behind Kanji tattoos might save you embarrassment later.

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