Chinese Symbol Tattoos

Chinese symbol tattoos are rapidly growing in popularity all round the world. In fact, more than 6000 people search for the phrase "Chinese Tattoos" on the internet every single day.

But that's not surprising as chinese tattoo designs and tattoo designs in general are extremely beautiful and mysterious. Thanks to the movies and popular culture, most people in the west can recognise these Chinese symbols but can't understand them. So that makes these tattoos a rather exotic form of self expression.

But beyond that, there are other more gender specific reasons for the popularity of these tattoo designs.

Women are attracted to the numerous subtle meanings and over-arching themes that the Chinese symbols can express, such as hope, freedom and love. Men, on the other hand, are drawn to Chinese symbol tattoos because in western culture they're strongly associated with martial arts movies.

So if you're considering getting a Chinese tattoo, here's a quick beginners guide to Chinese symbols.

The system of Chinese writing began more than 4000 years ago and doesn't have an alphabet. This is perhaps the biggest difference for non Chinese people to understand.

Instead, Chinese writing relies upon a large number of symbols that represent spoken ideas or concepts. Each symbol represents a different spoken word.

In 1710 AD the Kangxi Dictionary was created by imperial decree and contained more than 47,000 symbols. However, since then that number has risen to more than 70,000 symbols to represent the growing number of nuances and meanings in the modern language.

But having said that, the average Chinese person only needs to know around 5,000 of these Chinese symbols to be able to read and understand anything that's written in Chinese.

Chinese symbol tattoos represent a highly individual and beautiful way to express your personality. If you follow these basic guidelines you will be rewarded with a unique piece of body art which will last you for the rest of your life. Some more interesting tattoos at tattoo my ass.