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Rob_Hugo@PortNWThere a re many people liking the meaning of the Chinese symbols and do not hesitate on having them permanently inked on their bodies.
The message is interesting because by displaying the meaningful character they have chosen to have tattooed on them, “the human canvas” knows that there are many people seeing them who do not know what the characters mean (including me), but perhaps is a good way to start a conversation.
The tattoo of a character permits one to know that the carrier is somehow multicultural, perhaps spiritual and that he/she likes to display his/her believes.
I found the following site in case you are considering a tatoo
http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoos_designs_symbols_chinese_zodiac.htm
Many youngsters are inspired by movie stars that have tsatooes, either of characters or other symbols,
for example Angelina Jolie has many including a large Asian tiger, and a dragon on her lower back, a Buddhist Thai prayer for protection that is covering a Japanese kanji for "death." and a dragon on her left upper arm.
AnonymousWhen I was in high school chinese character tatoos were very popular. Everyone wanted one and they brought a lot of attention. People were constantly asking what it meant, most of the time it was either love, prosperity, or some animal.
The Chinese dragon is the most popular tattoo design in the world. Many people choose a Chinese dragon tattoo that has a picture of a dragon along with the symbol. Interestingly, it is considered extremely unlucky to have a picture of a dragon tattooed on your body. The symbol for dragon, however, is considered extremely lucky. Apparently, in ancient China it was forbidden to engrave the likeness of living creatures on the body.
Zug.com explains that in Chinese culture, the dragon is a benevolent helper of mankind. This could explain why people who choose the dragon tattoo symbol find themselves the recipients of many gifts of the universe, including love, luck, health, wealth, well-being, success, sexual stamina, good parking spaces, and protection from evil spirits.
The other popular Chinese tattoos are love, strength, family, and zodiac.
AnonymousThe Chinese Characters are in and of themselves a work of art. I can't imagine learning those letters in school as a young person. They really tell it all. So many times I have seen people decorate the walls of their homes with copies or originals of these letters which were hand painted. They come in a variety of colors too. I do not know what the colors symbolize if anything, but they really are decorative, and kind of trendy. It wouldn't be a bad thing to learn the symbols, and be able to read in Chinese !
AnonymousIt is interesting as more people are getting tattoos of this nature. You just have to make sure you are getting the correct letter character because one stroke can mean the difference between one meaning from another. I had a friend who wanted to tattoo the symbol for Power but instead has Mother--now these two characters don't look exactly alike but his lack of research resulted in something very permanent. The point is if you do the little research you can save yourself a lot of trouble. Plus, removing such a mistake can be a very painful process, from what I've heard.
AnonymousI'm reading your post with my Asian tiger on my back, but it is not a tatoo, but instead a knit top that I will take off later when I change clothes. I appreciate body art and tats on people, but I think I would become bored with whatever I had. Maybe placement on the back prevents boredom from setting in, since the owners really can't see it too much. Sleeves (is that what they're called?) though would be crazy. Nah, not doing that anytime soon. I agree that people want to share their beliefs or thoughts with their tatoos besides just doing it to do it, but sometimes, when someone is covered with tatoos, the message can get kind of lost on me. I guess I get conflicting messages. Expensive too? I vote for the small here and there to send a stronger message. Seems true to me in other areas of life too, not just tatoos.
AnonymousI don't really understand the attraction of tattooing one's body, but I have to admit, the most interesting tattoos I've seen are Chinese or Japanese characters or symbols. I once dated a guy with a sleeve, and one of the things he had was a beautiful Japanese koi fish. If nothing else, tattoos make for good conversation starters and it seems that many people like anything having to do with good luck tattood on themselves.
AnonymousI love tattoing as long as I can remove it later, I'd love to have one on my shoulder using my chinese zodiac sign(RAT) to enjoy it just temporarily. You should try a temporary one during summer time, and tell me if you enjoyed it or not.
Anonymoushenna tatoos are no biggie.
not at all the same.
temporary mind set for anything is different, don't you think?
AnonymousI love this trend. I myself have always wanted a tatoo, especially a Japanese of Chinese one. I have gotten a henna tatoo-it represented "Harmony" in Chinese. I loved it. Last night, I watched an episode of Cougar Town and Laurie, a ditzy blond, got a Chinese tatoo. She thought she got the symbol for tiger and instead she got a symbol for eatting. How does that happen? I wonder how many of these tatoos are "real?" Are most Americans this ignorant!
clay dubeHi Folks,
Britney Spears and many other celebrities have embraced 汉字 hanzi (Chinese for characters) or kanji (Japanese for characters) and millions of others have followed suit. My guess is that most tattoo parlors offer them as possible designs.
Not every tattoo works out quite as the buyer/wearer might hope. Hanzi Smatter is a wonderful website offering photos and translations of what problematic inscriptions actually say.
A post from 12/26 is great. Someone has produced an iPhone app that has assigned characters, randomly, to letters in the English alphabet. The program will allow you to "add mystery to your writing." Essentially, this is like a Captain Midnight Decoder Ring (no, I'm not actually old enough to remember that radio program, but the item was passed down as a family treasure) or any code that assigns symbols, numbers, or other letters to any letter. The app website allows you to try it out. So I typed "This is a hopelessly dumb program" and the program gave me 七升工弓 工弓 月 升口戶三心三弓弓心了 力臼冊官 戶尺口巨尺月冊. (You need to have East Asian languages enabled to see characters -- Windows users do this via start | control panel | regional and language options.)
Here's the website for you to try:
http://goodcharacters.com/alphabet/alphabetweb.php
The programmer says:
"Once you learn how to use this writing system, you no longer have to worry about others reading your diary or other secrets! Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans will recognize the characters, but the combination of characters won't make sense to them. And people who cannot read Chinese won't even try to read it. Isn't it cool?"
I think it is dumb, but I know that students think the characters are cool and mysterious and I highly recommend finding ways to introduce them. A simple way to start is with the months of the year, which are just numbers: January is 一月 or first month.
Tim Xie at Cal State Long Beach has put together a list of web resources that offer tools and ideas you may find useful. At the very least let's hope our students will know enough not to get mirror tattoos (where the characters are reversed, which is like spelling reversed this way: desrever).
clay dubeIn case anyone's wondering: harmony
March 8, 2008 Xinhua article:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/04/content_7716917.htm
"BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The Olympic ceremonies will convey the "conception of harmony from an international perspective", Chen Weiya, deputy general director of the opening and closing ceremonies for the Beijing Games, said Tuesday. ...."
August 9, 2008 NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/sports/olympics/09china.html
"BEIJING — An ecstatic China finally got its Olympic moment on Friday night. And if the astonishing opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games lavished grand tribute on Chinese civilization and sought to stir an ancient nation’s pride, there was also a message for an uncertain outside world: Do not worry. We mean no harm...." (check out the fantastic slide show)
The character for tiger (and it's going to be the year of the tiger) is hu:
[Edit by="Clay Dube on Jan 22, 4:42:23 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousI have no problems with tattoos and have 2 myself. However, both were products of years of thought and care to what they would be, why I'd want them on my body for the rest of my life and where would I put them?
I find that many of my students do not tattoo themselves with hanzi or kanji characters but I do know that it is very popular when one enters the college level. My students are more interested at the moment with morbid tattoo's (skeleton's hand on a shoulder, revolver's on the forearms, etc). However tribal tattoo's never go out of style for the men.
I agree with what several people have said regarding the simple fact that the kanji or hanzi designs are frequently mis-tattooed, leading to a different interpretation on their body. Sometimes, they don't even realize it until a person who can read Japanese or Chinese mentions it. I would hate to be involved in one of those discussions.
Tattooing it seems has become drastically more popular in the last 10-15 years in part due to the celebrity culture that flaunts them. Yes, Angelina Jolie does have more than several tattoos on her body, but they represent something to her- or to her adopted children (I'm thinking the Thai boy and the script she has on her back). As for Brittney Spears, she tattooed herself to represent a religion that disdains tattoos oddly enough. The religion in itself became a fad religion made popular by celebrities. I can't even remember which Judaic sect it represented!
Not to end this on an anti-climatic note, but I thought that tattoos in Japan were very taboo and the only people who got them were gangsters and other social "out castes"?
AnonymousI think a lot of are lost in translation. I have a friend that wanted to get "laughter" in Hebrew but instead she got "she laughs." She look on the internet, ask her mom and grandmother about and she still got it wrong. [Edit by="jbrusa on Jan 23, 3:05:47 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousWhile I really don’t find the recent Tattoo fad that appealing, I do see Henna Tattoos as delicate and striking. I first noticed them on the many beautiful women during a trip to Morocco. I accompanied a friend who went to visit one of the many talented artists, who painted the hands and feet of women, it was fascinating to see her paint the design by hand.