kanji tattoos

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This is what most Japanese associate with the word tattoo, or irezumi in Japanese: a scary Yakuza with a full body tattoo. My wife, who is Japanese, says that, from the git-go, she can't fathom why someone would want to get themselves tattooed; tattoos are only for yakuza or people of long ago. As for kanji tattoos, she is equally bemused by kanji tattoos of a single ideogram, out of context as it were, and strange combinations of characters, but she does feel flattered that people take enough of an interest in the Japanese language and culture to want to have kanji tattooed on their bodies.

Kanji are sometimes incorporated into traditional Japanese tattoos, but they are rarely the focal point of the tattoo. So kanji tattoos are neither traditional, nor popular with modern Japanese. But that's OK, I don't think there's any rule saying that tattoos have to be traditional, or that they have to please everyone. And kanji, being ideograms, do lend themselves to artistic representation, for instance as calligraphy. I like this calligraphy of a kanji that can mean either laugh or smile, mainly because it made me realize for the first time that this character could be viewed as a pictograph of a person laughing:

You have to remember though that kanji are not just cool looking designs, they do have meanings--meanings that can be take in at a glance by a large number of the people living on this planet, and which may include nuances and connotations that are not denoted in any dictionary, and most probably over the head of your local tattoo artist.

Surfing the net, I've come across many cases of people proudly proclaiming that their kanji tattoo means this, or that it means that, when in fact it means something completely different or nothing at all; or worse yet, people asking what their kanji tattoo means, because they have no idea.

More times than not, kanji tattoos have some kind of mistake. Sometimes it looks as if the person who made the stencil was not familiar with kanji, so the resulting tattoo is oddly shaped or out of proportion, sometimes the tattoo artist has reversed the character, sometimes a piece of the character has been left out, sometimes an extraneous something has been randomly added. A common problem is straight or literal translation. I teach English in Japan, and straight translation is something I often warn my students against. One student told me that he had "pick up alcohol" to cure his hangover when he meant to say that he had had "a little hair of the dog." In this case, the straight translation from Japanese to English is more or less intelligible in context, but imagine if you translated the English idiom literally--the result could not be anything but enigmatic no matter what language it was translated into.

One obvious case of problematic literal translation I've seen was that of a kanji tattoo, whose owner was sure, meant "carpe diem." It was made up of four kanji: the first two, a kanji compound meaning "grasp," as in grasp a concept or idea; the second two, a compound meaning "today," as in "today is Tuesday." Apparently someone had made a less than competent stab at translating "seize the day" into Japanese by using an English to Japanese or Chinese dictionary. The predictable result was a kanji tattoo that rather than meaning carpe diem in kanji, turned out to be just gibberish.

Another example is pictured above. This kanji tattoo seems to be very popular. It's supposed by its wearers to mean "live for today." As you can see, it's made up of two characters, the first of which means "life" (and a whole host of other things including birth, grow and raw) and the second of which independently means "appear," but as a prefix, means "present," as in the here and now. In combination, these two characters mean nothing at all.

But all hope is not lost. There is actually a saying in Japanese that is similar to "live for today" or "carpe diem." You can see it written in calligraphy on the scroll on the right. It is pronounced "ichi go ichi e." It is made up of four characters meaning, respectively: "one," "inevitable moment," "one" and "meet." It's an idiomatic expression, but it can be interpreted as meaning, "each inevitable moment is only encountered once." The implication is that you should live each moment of your life to the fullest because it only comes around once: "seize the day." In fact, this phrase was used as the Japanese title of the movie, Dead Poets Society, whose catchphrase was "carpe diem/seize the day." I recommend that anyone who would like to express this type of sentiment on their skin in permanent ink opt for this saying.

Pictured at left is a nice example of a tattoo combining kanji with a dragon. I can only make out two of the characters, but the one at the top is the kanji for the basic Confucian precept of benevolence, and the one on the far right is a character which means courage.

This is a picture of a Zebrahead band member's kanji tattoo. It's a the Japanese saying for "seize the day" : Ichi Go Ichi E. This tattoo, as far as the kanji go, is in no way strange. Actually, I read a comment about it on a Japanese Zebrahead fan's blog, and the blogger had nothing but good things to say about it.

When deciding on a word or phrase for your kanji tattoo, starting from English and translating into Japanese is not the best modus operandi. I once saw a hilarious English mistake at a Gold's Gym in Japan. There was a sign posted in the barbell area that said, "Please Wear Collars When Barbells Are In Use." I had no idea what it could possibly mean (was this a formal gym where t-shirts were not allowed?) until I read the original Japanese version which said, "Please Attach Clamps When using The Barbells." You see, clamps for free weights are called "collars" in Japanese. As I mentioned above, straight translation from one language to another does not always work.

What you really need is a resource that can give you lots of examples of Japanese words and expressions with accurate English translations. If you're interested in a comprehensive image dictionary of Japanese symbols for kanji tattoos, or for your artworks, I recommend his image dictionary of 500 kanji, complete with their equivalents in the Hiragana and Katakana syllabries, and their pronunciations. This is a 100% reliable resource that is also an excellent study guide to help you learn the 500 most poplar kanji for creative designs.

It has kanji representing a variety of categories such as personal preferences & values, spirituality, religion, relationships, family, sports & leisure, zodiac signs, seasons, martial arts, arts & music, nature, weather, Japanese culture, etc. Also, the calligraphy style used for the Kanji symbols in this book has beautifull aesthetic balance, and each Kanji is displayed both horizontally and vertically so that you can quickly grasp the look of the Kanji symbols in each alignment.

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David Beckham never embarrasses himself on the soccer field, and he hasn't embarrassed himself with this kanji tattoo either. It is a Chinese proverb, written in Chinese cursive script, which means, "death and life have determined appointments, riches and honor depend upon heaven."

Chinese tattoo artist Yingying says of it:
"I have personally seen many western celebrities wearing Chinese tattoos, Beckham's Chinese Tattoo is the only one which impresses me."

When people think of kanji tattoos they often think of Japanese kanji, but these characters of course originated in China, and Chinese kanji tattoos are also popular. Chinese and Japanese still share many of the same ideograms, but otherwise, they are very different languages. Generally speaking, even if they can't speak the other's language, Japanese and Chinese people can communicate by writing down ideograms on a piece of paper, but there is also room for misinterpretation. For example, one Chinese word which means "restaurant," is written with the characters for "alcohol" and "house." A Japanese person who knew no Chinese would assume that meant "bar."

So if you are interested in getting a Chinese kanji tattoo, you should consult a native speaker of of Chinese. Actually, the most sensible thing to do is to find a native speaker of Chinese who also has expert knowledge about tattoos and translation from Chinese to English and vice-versa. Yingying is just such an expert.