Kanji Tattoos
Kanji tattoos was developed by the Chinese and Japanese is a highly developed writing system that evolved at least 3000 years ago.
Their ancient writing being found written on many materials like bone, brass vessels or pottery and bamboo strips!
The origins of Kanji tattoos have a long and distant history of both China and Japan, and with the Japanese language being derived from Chinese you can see why there is a lot of confusion in this subject and buying the right design is crucial.
Kanji symbols, in their archaic Chinese form, traveled to Japan over the fifth and sixth centuries, along with Buddhism, tea, and a host of other Far Eastern traditions. Kanji tattoo symbols were originally invented by the Chinese and introduced to Japan.
Did you know that the Chinese writing system has no alphabet?
No?…Well It relies on a large number of Kanji symbols that represents spoken concepts or ideas! The understanding is that Kanji tattoos are derived from Kanji symbols and meanings which is one of the three common Japanese alphabets, the other two are Katakana and Hiragana.
Kanji tattoos which uses Kanji symbols are part of the Japanese writing system, which consists of characters borrowed from the ancient Chinese writing. The Kanji symbols alphabet is more complicated and difficult, but is really beautiful and fascinating and is used quite often for a Kanji symbol tattoo.
Many people make the mistake of thinking that Kanji symbols is a pictograph. However this is false belief and rather it represents the entire spoken word.
E-books on Kanji tattoos have obviously now gotten very popular in Western countries these days, and you can even get a Kanji tattoo dictionary. Other than in Kanji tattoos in the west, did you know that the Kanji alphabet is mainly used in China, Japan and Taiwan.
And today one of the biggest misconceptions in that when someone wants to get their Kanji tattoos on their skin is they are confident that they know what it means. This however may not always be the case and they can end up with some embarrassing Kanji tattoos!
So what can you do to avoid the Kanji tattoos embarrassment?
Well before rushing off to get the Kanji tattoos tattooed on your skin check with someone who can read and understand Kanji symbols and do a English to Kanji translation, there are a few sites that have Kanji tattoos in e-books that already pre-translated for you and some that can do Kanji tattoo translation.
Chinese Calligraphy
Chinese Calligraphy is a precise and articulate art and sometimes the small detailed strokes can be missing in your Kanji tattoos design. The artistic flair of your tattoo artist can turn your Kanji tattoos into utter gibberish which is not what you want stuck on you for the rest of your life.
That is why we cannot stress the importance of an accurate design that will save you hassle from the start.
Chinese names are written in the reversed order? This means your last name goes before your first! Your western name is probably foreign to the Chinese language so Chinese symbols will have to be picked out to pronounce your name. But because there are no Chinese alphabets, you will have to pick out the Chinese symbols that represent the pronunciation of your name.
Nevertheless, Kanji tattoos are very popular today because they are really beautiful. And because most of us in the Western Hemisphere cannot read Chinese, Kanji tattoos become an “exotic” form of expression.
Kanji tattoos can be done on their own to express a certain meaning or they can be incorporated into a larger piece such as a back-piece depicting Japanese or Chinese style imagery such as dragons or koi fish.
Being responsible and not silly when picking Kanji tattoos
When choosing your Kanji tattoos lettering please respect the language that you will be using in your design and know that the language you are using has a very old history that should be respected and accurately used.
Now Kanji is a common character in East Asia much like a Roman alphabet of Europe. Using Kanji is more respectful towards the native speakers and the stroke order for drawing Japanese kanji tattoos is very important as you would not want to be disrespectful to someone.
Kanji tattoos are not the only kind of Japanese symbol tattoos. Kanji tattoos created by talented and skilled artists are rightly regarded as works of art, kanji tattoos also indicated mob membership in the Yazuka – the Japanese mafia and in the Triad in Hong Kong.
Kanji tattoos aren’t just some type of new wave body art that has surfaced in recent times, Kanji tattoos have been popular among all people for quite some time, which we now know that the Kanji is a type of Japanese script.
People love Kanji tattoos because they have a complex beauty as well as individual meanings which is the reason that Kanji tattoos are really picking up in popularity.
And with Kanji tattoos are by far the most popular of the three Japanese style symbols.
Kanji tattoos are based on language characters which are artistic in nature and it’s not easy to just think you can apply them however you want – Horrible kanji Tattoos are for life, not just for Christmas.
Below is an example of the the Kanji tattoos book on this site contains an extensive collection of Kanji tattoos from peoples names to sayings and phrases.
