Number 1: Get Your Chinese Character Tattoo Right The First Time
Chinese symbol tattoos are one of the designs that are most likely to go wrong. Mistranslations, poor designs and bad alignment can all render your new design meaningless.
Sure, you can get them removed, but at present it's a painful and costly process that isn't guaranteed to be 100% successful.
So take your time, get professional advice and make sure you get a good quality, authentic design that you're happy with before you go under the needle. Don't end up looking like the victim of a cruel practical joke.
Number 2: Don't Use Kanji Designs From Tattoo Studios
Many tattoo studios provide a variety of pre designed Kanji symbols that you can have tattooed onto your body. These are cheap and quick, but suffer from a number of major disadvantages.
First, many of them have been poorly translated, so you may end up with a design that means something different to what you expected. Second, many of these standard designs have been drawn incorrectly, which destroys their meaning.
So instead of going into your local tattoo studio and picking a design off the wall or from a folder, do your own research. Decide the words that you want to appear in your Chinese tattoo, get them professionally translated and then get a custom design created to your order.
Number 3: Get Advice From A Chinese Person
This is absolutely vital. Chinese writing is extremely complex and can often be used to give one word in several different meanings. So make sure you speak to a Chinese person who can verify that you have the right symbols to match your intended meaning. If possible, make sure that they have experience of Chinese symbol tattoos.
Number 4: Select Your Words Carefully
When you get a new tattoo, it's important to assume that it will be with you for the rest of your life. So before you decide to get a Chinese symbol tattoo think long term and try to select wide over-arching ideas that express who you are and what you stand for.
For example, timeless ideas such as freedom, love and hope are always good choices.
And whatever you do, avoid fashionable words as they have a nasty habit of falling out of fashion within a short space of time. The aim is to select a design that you'll be as happy with in twenty years time as you are today.
Number 5: Select Your Artist Carefully
A tattoo that solely consists of Chinese characters can look rather plain unless the writing is completed with a certain amount of style and flair.
Even worse, it's easy for non Chinese artists to unintentionally deface the delicate Chinese symbols. Chinese calligraphy is very precise. The strokes have to be a certain shape and be aligned properly, otherwise the meaning of the design can be lost.
So it's vital to select a tattoo artist who is experienced in producing Chinese calligraphy.
Finally, if you want your Chinese tattoo to have even more impact, consider adding a small picture to your Chinese symbols.
The Chinese dragon is popular with men, while the Chinese phoenix is a favorite with many women. Both of these mythical creatures represent power and luck and will make a wonderful addition to your perfect Chinese tattoo.
And it's not hard to understand why these Chinese calligraphy tattoo designs have become so popular. These ancient designs provide a beautiful way to express an unlimited number of subtle thoughts and messages. Everyone can appreciate the artistry of these designs even if they don't understand the subtle meanings behind them.
But beyond the beauty and deeper meaning of Chinese tattoos, they provide an excellent icebreaker when meeting people. While tattoos are normally a talking point, Chinese tattoos create even more intrigue. If you get a butterfly tattoo, people will ask why you got it and what it means to you. But with a Chinese tattoo you get the opportunity to translate the meaning of the characters and explain what the design means to you.
Unfortunately, for every perfect Chinese tattoo there are ten major mistakes. Every day hundreds of people leave tattoo studios blissfully unaware that their new tattoo doesn't say what they think it does, or that the characters are actually Japanese. Some people end up with a meaningless tattoo, others are not so lucky. They think that it says their boyfriend's name and later discover that it says "supermarket"...or worse.
So to help you avoid these lasting mistakes, here's how to get the perfect Chinese tattoo design.
Do your research. Consult two or three native Chinese speakers about your design. Tell them the message that you want your design to convey and ask them for suggestions. Different people will suggest different character combinations to achieve the meaning that you want.
The most popular designs are those that express general ideas and thoughts such as love, happiness etc. Any of these concepts are a good choice because they contain deeper, more subtle meanings and you're less likely to grow tired of timeless concepts such as peace and honor.
However it's a widespread myth that Chinese characters convey abstract concepts. Despite what you may imagine, written Chinese is primarily a phonetic script that is meant to represent spoken Chinese. So it's important to bear in mind that your chosen characters should be translated properly and sound right in Chinese.
For example, if you wanted a Chinese tattoo design that represented "Peace, Love and Happiness", you would have to translate this English idiom into Chinese. And while the meaning will be clear to Chinese people, the three characters used wouldn't actually sound right to Chinese speakers. So it's important to find the correct Chinese characters to;
1) Represent the meaning that you want,
2) Be understood by Chinese people, and
3) Sound right when pronounced in Chinese.
And to achieve that, it's absolutely vital to consult a few native Chinese speakers before you put a needle anywhere near your skin.
Once you've got the characters that you want and all the different meanings and connotations have been checked, get one of the native speakers to sketch out the characters and take them to your tattoo artist. They should have experience of applying Chinese character tattoos and be able to offer you a choice of fonts, ranging from classic calligraphy to a more contemporary style.
After that, you can relax knowing that you'll have a beautiful Chinese tattoo design that's full of mystery and deep personal meaning for the rest of your life.
Gustavo Gomez has sinced written about articles on various topics from Tattoo, Cars and Tattoo. For more information about and ideas about a whole range of tattoo designs, visit Gustavo Gomez's site at SuperTattooDesigns.com. Gustavo Gomez's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.