Tattoo art: kanji tattoos

Showing posts with label kanji tattoos. Show all posts

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Don't waste your skin (neither your time and your money)! Don't use this Kanji-chart as a start point for a tattoo!!

Hello, everyone! In this post I want to warn you against a so-called "kanji chart" which, for the sake of the truth should be rather called "Laughably distorted Hanzi/Kanji chart". Below you can see the (in)famous chart:

At the first sight, the so-called chart and the accompanying text seem pretty credible, but don't let the appearances fool you: nearly all the ideograms presented in this image are distorted and several of them are wrongly translated.

So, if you want to get a Kanji/Hanzi tattoo, don't waste your time, don't waste your money, and, above all, don't waste your skin - and don't use this chart as inspiration for your future tattoo.

Similar posts:
Wow! a great looking doodle
A cool guy... or a bad woman?
Tattoos fails: kanji / hanzi mistakes
When a Kanji/Hanzi tattoo spokes for itself
Don't believe this guy - he has no idea what he's talking about:)
This is NOT a Kanji / Hanzi tattoo. This is just a doodle.
What possibly could be wrong with this tattoo?

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Wow! a great looking doodle

Hi, everyone! Usually I say only negative things about the ridiculous Kanji/Hanzi tattoos that can be usually seen on the internet, but today I'm in a good mood and therefore in this post I'll try to say something positive. So, instead of saying that this is an absolutely ridiculous, poorly written, hideous Kanji/Hanzi tattoo, I'll say that this is a first-rate doodle-tattoo.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Mrs. Kaylee from Creativefan.com strikes again

I know that in my last post I've said that I'll stop writing about the moronic articles posted on creativefan, but this time they went to far. Let's watch the image below:

As you can see, Mrs Kaylee Smith claims that "It is common for people to get their body parts inked with Chinese characters to show their love for the language." I suppose that it is also common for some people who love to exhibit their ignorance to claim that the KOREAN LETTERS are Chinese characters:)))

Thursday, September 25, 2014

One of the worst articles about Kanji/Hanzi tattoos I have ever read (2)

Hi, everyone! In this post I'll continue to highlight the errors that I've found in this absolutely ridiculous article.

Let's take a look at the picture above. This ideogram (loyal, loyalty, fidelity, faithfulness, devoted) is one of the most common chinese/japanese ideograms. Instead, Mrs Kaylee Smith (the author of the article) has nothing to say about this ideogram, except the fact that it has "a striking resemblance to a human face". It's obvious that the so-called "expert" has absolutely no idea about the significance of the ideogram (which, I repeat, is a very simple and a very well known one).

"...the love bond between sisters"?? Another wrong translation. In fact, first ideogram means "little sister" and the second ideogram means "forever", so the meaning of these two ideograms taken together could be something like "little sister forever"?? (I don't know this word and I couldn't find it in any dictionary).

"tattoo with the Chinese symbol and an year name in digits"??? Huh? Thit does not make much sense, right? Anyway, the ideogram means "tiger", not "Year of the Tiger".

A pretty ugly Kanji/Hanzi tattoo, some misspelled strokes, bla, bla, bla, this time I won't pay attention to details, because we have a huge translation-mistake here. Let's see what Mrs K.Smith says about the meaning of the ideograms: "Chinese symbols for luck, respect and strength". Oh, really? Where? On the first (horizontal) line we have "respect". On the second line we have "luck, fortune". But where could be the word which means "strength"?

And the last, but not the least mistake (the last because I got tired reading stupid article and comments, not because there wouldn't be other mistakes on creativefan). Mrs Kaylee says: "This triangular Chinese symbol series stands for mother, brotherhood and supermarket." C'mmon, Kaylee, "supermarket"??? Before seeing this post I was convinced that Mrs Kaylee is a very shallow person. Now, I doubt that she is a real person at all.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Wow! The tell of love!

Recently, while I was looking for some ridiculous tattoos to make fun of them I've found this little gem on ratemyink.com:

The person who posted the photo says about this tattoo: My best friend did this one. It means I Love You in Japanese. (see the picture above).

Well, she is wrong, and I'll briefly explain why:
1. The ideogram is poorly written and is missing several strokes
2. "shiteru" is written with Katakana, but it should be written with hiragana (read this article on wikipedia if you want to know more about the differences between Hiragana and Katakana.)
3. The Kana characters should be written on the same line
4. The first character written in Katakana (shi) is missing two strokes, so it's not the "shi" character anymore, it's "no". This mistake transforms the phrase from "ai shiteru" (I love you) in the moronic phrase "ai no teru", which means "The tell of love" (tell = type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries).

Similar posts:
Stupidity is painful
Another failed kanji / hanzi tattoo
A cool guy... or a bad woman?
Tattoos fails: kanji / hanzi mistakes
He has hemorrhoids... and he is proud with that
Failed tatoos: Kanji mistakes - the seven virtues of the samurai
When a Kanji/Hanzi tattoo spokes for itself
Don't believe this guy - he has no idea what he's talking about:)
This is NOT a Kanji / Hanzi tattoo. This is just a doodle.
What possibly could be wrong with this tattoo?

Thursday, August 7, 2014

"Be the change!" tattoo. This is a really good advice. You should start with the tattoo itself!

Despite the many positive reviews which can be seen on the Internet (see the PrintScreen below), this tattoo is not a "cool Hanzi tattoo" or a "Chinese symbol tattoo" or a "cool wrist tattoo" or anything else of this kind. In fact this is nothing else than another failed Kanji/Hanzi tattoo drawn by someone who doesn't know anything about Chinese/Japanese writing.

And definitely this deformed ideogram does not mean "bike", as some people think, despite the fact that the ideogram is so poorly written that it looks more like a severely damaged bike rather than the original ideogram (成 - Chinese pronunciation:"chéng", japanese pronunciation:"naru/nasu/joo/sei"; meaning: "to finish / to complete / to accomplish / to become / to turn into / to change into"). In the image below you can see what this ideogram should look like:

In the end I have a piece of advice for the guy who wear this tattoo: dude, if you want to be the change or to be a part of the great change (as your tattoo suggests), you should start the change with this ridiculous tattoo.

Similar posts:
Stupidity is painful
Another failed kanji / hanzi tattoo
A cool guy... or a bad woman?
Tattoos fails: kanji / hanzi mistakes
He has hemorrhoids... and he is proud with that
Failed tatoos: Kanji mistakes - the seven virtues of the samurai
When a Kanji/Hanzi tattoo spokes for itself
Don't believe this guy - he has no idea what he's talking about:)
This is NOT a Kanji / Hanzi tattoo. This is just a doodle.
What possibly could be wrong with this tattoo?

Thursday, July 24, 2014

One of the worst articles about Kanji/Hanzi tattoos I have ever read (1)

If you are looking for inspiration for a Hanzi/Kanji tattoo you should avoid this website: creativefan.com and especially the articles written by "kayleesmith". This person has absolutely no idea about Chinese/Japanese writing system, but this didn't stop her to write an article full of ridiculous opinions and meaningless advices, with the stated goal of making "you more informed about the subject" (see the printscreen below).

Now, after we've seen the introduction, let's see what is wrong with this article:

Creativefan says about this tattoo: "Twin chinese symbols". No way, first character means "place, location" or "banquet, classifier for banquets" and the second one means "dog".

Creativefan says about this tattoo: "Chinese symbol for bike". Nope, this is just a a horrible variant of the chinese character 成 (chéng) which means "to finish / to complete / to accomplish / to become / to turn into". The comment written by Mrs/Ms Kaylee is a clear proof that she doesn't even have basic knowledge of Chinese/Japanese language, because 成 is one of the most important Hanzi/Kanji and is used in hundreds of different common words. On the other hand, this ideogram is so poorly written that it looks more like a severely damaged bike rather than the original ideogram.

Creativefan says about this tattoo: "This tattoo, created on the center of the back, is a Chinese symbol for horse which is looking cute" No, is just the British/American name "Mark" transcribed in Chinese

This Hanzi/Kanzi is missing several strokes, but the author of the article didn't notice it. Read more about this tattoo here

failed - meaningless kanji / hanzi tattoo

What?? "hard-pressed/to be troubled/to be worried" + "personal/private" +"beautiful". It has no sense at all. So, Mrs./Ms. Kaylee, can you explain why anyone would become "addicted" to this non-sense?

failed tattoo: kanji written upside down

First character is distorted; the second character is distorted and is written upside down. Once again, Ms. Kaylee missed the point.

failed kanji tattoo: kanji with missing strokes

The second character is poorly written and is missing a stroke, but the author of the article didn't notice. Instead, she talks about "the colorful stars"

Since there are too many mistakes in this article to be covered in just one post, I'll stop here but I'll definitely be back on this topic.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

This "Wife" Kanzi/Hanzi is missing several strokes. Maybe the woman who wear the tattoo feels like something is missing in her marriage :)

Yesterday I've found on creativefan.com one of the worst articles about Kanji/Hanzi tattoos I have ever read. The author of the article has absolutely no idea about Chinese/Japanese writing system, but this didn't stop him/her to write an article full of ridiculous opinions and meaningless advices. For example, let's take a look at this photo:

As you can see, there is also a short description of the image: This woman is pleased to become a wife and has got a tattoo with flowers to express her happiness and pride. Yeah, sure. But it seems to me that she want to express not only her happiness and pride but also her ignorance, because the Hanzi/Kanji is missing several strokes. For a comparison look at the image below (I know, it isn't a particularly good looking ideogram, but at least, it is properly written).

Monday, July 21, 2014

What possibly could be wrong with this tattoo?

What possibly could be wrong with this tattoo (Gemini Symbol in Chinese/Japanese characters)?

Nothing is wrong with it. Except that the characters are really ugly. And the ~~artist~~ person who drawn this ~~tattoo~~ mess has absolutely no idea about the bǐshùn/hitsujun rules (the order in which the strokes of a Chinese character are written). And the two components of the first ideogram do not resemble each other, as would be expected since the ideogram which means "dual/set/pair/twin". And the second character looks more like a distorted swastika than a depiction of the "子" Hanzi/Kanji. And the third character has no resemblance with the Kanji/Hanzi for "constellation (座). And the entire ~~tattoo~~ is hideous. Besides all these, there is nothing wrong with this ~~tattoo~~ doodle.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

This is NOT a Kanji / Hanzi tattoo. This is just a doodle.

Another hideous tattoo:

The two "items" which can be seen in the picture above could hardly be called "Kani" or "Hanzi". This is not Sousho/Cǎoshū (=the flowing cursive style of calligraphy). Is not even Gyousho/Xíngshū (=the semi-cursive style of calligraphy). In fact, it isn't cursive at all. And no one could ever say that these two characters are written in Kaisho/Kǎishū style (=regular writing).

And, to make things worse, the second character is missing several strokes.
In conclusion, this is just a doodle. A mirrored doodle, to be more precise.

For comparison, in the image below you can see the same word (真愛 = true love) written in Kǎishū style (Kǎishū means "regular writing" in Chinese; I don't use the japanese term - Kaisho - because 真愛 has a different meaning in Japanese - it doesn't mean "true love", it's a feminine name).

Chinese writing: true love. This image belongs to www.tattoo-rose.com

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Don't believe this guy - he has no idea what he's talking about:)

Hello, everyone!
Let's take a look at the picture below:

The tattoo is OK, but the description of the image is completely wrong: first Kanji (芸) means "art, performance, talent, technique, acting" and the second one (者) means "person". If we put these two Kanji together we get the world-wide known word 芸者 (geisha), but the person who posted the image says that the meaning of the the word is "beauty" (If you are looking for some of idea, I think this Beauty Kanji Tattoo Design is a great choice for your design idea future, so don’t forget to checkout the main page Best Kanji Tattoos Design to read the whole story. We hope these picture motivate you to be carried out for your lovely tattoo.)

Well, what can I say? It seems that on the Internet, everyone is an expert... in everything.

Similar posts:
Stupidity is painful

Another failed kanji / hanzi tattoo

A cool guy... or a bad woman?

Tattoos fails: kanji / hanzi mistakes

He has hemorrhoids... and he is proud with that

Failed tatoos: Kanji mistakes - the seven virtues of the samurai

When a Kanji/Hanzi tattoo spokes for itself

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

My tattoo-designs: I have no money, but I have dreams

Hello, everyone! In this post I'd like to present you one of my tattoo-designs: 金はないけど夢はある (reading: kane wa nai kedo yume wa aru) - is a japanese expression which means "I have no money, but I have dreams". In the first picture below you can see the original tattoo-design; in the second image you can see how it looks as a back-tattoo.

The original tattoo-design. For more Kanji-tattoo-designs visit my website, seiza.ro.

If you use any of my tattoo-designs as a model / inspiration / starting-point for a tattoo you might consider sending me some photos of the tattoo once it's complete. Thank you in advance.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

A failed tattoo? Not necessarily.

The tattoo in the picture below is often given as an example of a failed tattoo (I've founded the same confusion even on hanzismatter.blogspot, a blog which belongs to someone who seems to have vast knowledge of Chinese and Japanese languages).

ideograms tattoo - chinese meaning = fool, sucker; japanese meaning: Akiko - a very popular female name

If we consider only the Chinese reading of these characters, the tattoo's meaning is "fool, sucker" - 呆 (pronunciation: dai with the first tone) = dull; dull-minded, simple, stupid; 子 (pronunciation: zi with the third tone) = offspring, child; together they form the word 呆子 (daizi) which means "fool, stupid, sucker".

On the other hand, in Japanese 呆子 is just one of the nearly 300 ways (I know, it's hard to believe that there are really that many) to write the popular name "Akiko".

In conclusion, this is not (such) a failed tattoo.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Stupidity is painful

I've often heard that stupidity is painful - and recently I found the proof. For the beginning, let's keep in mind two facts about tattoos:

1. Getting a tattoo is a pretty painful process.
2. It's really silly to get a Kanji / Hanzi tattoo without getting informed about the Kanji / Hanzi 's meaning.

Now, with this two things in mind, let's take a look at this tattoo:

The very first problem is that the top character is upside down. But that is just a small problem.

The real problem is the meaning of these ideograms:

The the top character (苦) means "pain; suffering; distress; anxiety; trouble".
The next two ideograms (阿呆) mean "fool; simpleton; idiot".

The tattoo's meaning is something like "suffering idiot" or "a fool in pain" or "distressed simpleton" or something of this kind.

In conclusion, stupidity is really painful.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

A cool guy... or a bad woman?

Recently I found this image on freetattoos.net (the image's url is: http://www.freetattoos.net/designs/8890)

First, let's take a look at the picture:

kanji fails: the kanji for 'bad woman' tattooed on a man's shoulder

Well, I don't know what this dude thinks about his tattoo and why is he so proud of it because the meaning of the tattoo (悪女; reading: akujo) is "bad woman" or "wicked woman" which, let's face it, isn't exactly an appropriate tattoo for a man. But who knows, maybe he is trying to get in touch with his feminine side :)

Now, let's see what the person who uploaded the picture thinks about it:
title="Tattoo of Chinese Letters Kanji on the Back" (the description of the image is included in the Html code to share on Myspace, Blogs and other Social Networks:)

As if it weren't bad enough that the tattoo itself is pretty weird, the description is even worse:
1. The Chinese ideograms are called Hanzi and the Japanese ideograms are called Kanji. The "Chinese Letters Kanji" is a nonsense.
2. Both the Hanzi and the Kanji are ideograms, not letters (is a big difference between the two concepts)
3. The ideograms of the tattoo are Kanji, not Hanzi, because the ideogram 悪 is not used in Chinese; in Chinese we have those ideograms instead: 惡 (in the traditional Chinese) and 恶 (in the modern / simplified Chinese)

Saturday, June 23, 2012

A japanese proverb: Even monkeys fall out the trees

Hi, everyone. In this post I'd like to present you a nice japanese proverb: Even monkeys fall out the trees (japanese pronunciation: Saru mo ki kara ochiru)

This proverb reminds us that everyone, even the best, make mistakes, so is better not to become overconfident in our own skills/knowledge/power/abilities, etc. On the other hand, this proverb reminds us that mistakes do happen and we should be tolerant when others make mistakes.

This japanese proverb is equivalent with the latin dictum "Errare humanum est" (=to err is human).

In the image below you can see this proverb written in japanese:

If you want to print this image (or to use it for a tattoo) you can find the image without watermark on my website, www.seiza.ro

Monday, June 11, 2012

Tattoos fails: kanji / hanzi mistakes

Recently I found this image on ratemyink.com:

and here is the description of the image, sent by the tattoo's owner: "This is technically my third tattoo. The artist is Dan Greuling from Creepy Creations in Londonderry, NH. With my design idea, Dan did the entire work freehand. The symbols come from the Five Phase (constructive/destructive) Cycle of Traditional Chinese Medicine (clockwsise from top: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). They show growth and break down ie. how everything is connected. The root system now extends down to my left foot ending in the double koru. There is much more to this. Please ask. (For those who don't know how this website (ratemyink.com) is working: if you have a tattoo and you want to find out what other people think about your tattoo, you can send a picture with the tattoo along with a short explanation about the meaning of the tattoo.)

Unfortunately, the symbol on the top of the tattoo is not the ideogram for tree, but a meaningless phonetic katakana syllable 'ho'. The "tree / wood / timber" symbol (木) has no hook at the bottom and the 3rd and 4th strokes are attached to the 1st. In the image below you can see both the ideogram for "wood / tree" and the katakana character "ho":

the kanji / hanzi for tree / wood vs the katakana character ho

In conclusion, before you get a Kanji / Hanzi tattoo it's better to spend some time researching the authenticity of the symbols’ meaning.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Failed tatoos: Kanji mistakes - the seven virtues of the samurai

Well, this is happens when you get a kanji (or hanzi) tattoo without consulting someone who is knowledgeable and trustworthy. This is one of the worst kanji tattoos I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot of silly tattoos).

First, let's take a look at the image below: the seven virtues of the samurai, written in kanji. I've choose a common type of fonts - MS Gothic.

the seven virtues of the samurai written in kanji

Now let's take a look at this photo:

kanji tattoo fail: the seven virtues of the samurai

It's obvious that the tattoo is a completely lame.

Let's take a closer look at the ideograms tattooed on this dude's body:

The first kanji, tattooed on the neck: two strokes are missing (the strokes from the top) and the ideogram has been splitted into two parts: 王 (king, monarch) and 我 (I, me). In the image below is a standard depiction of this kanji:

kanji for tattoos: the seven virtues of the samurai: gi = rectitude

The second and the third kanji seem to be well written.

The 4th kanji is missing a stroke. In the image below is a standard depiction of this kanji:

kanji for tattoos: the seven virtues of the samurai: rei = respect

The 5th kanji is a total mess: a stroke is missing (in the upper right corner of the kanji) and the radical looks like an independent character. In the image below is a standard depiction of this kanji:

kanji for tattoos: the seven virtues of the samurai: makoto = honesty

The 6th word is composed of two kanji characters (名 - distinguished / name / reputation and 誉 - glory / honor /praise / reputation). When a word is composed of two or more kanji, all the kanji must have the same size and must be written on the same line. In the image below is a standard depiction of this word:

kanji for tattoos: the seven virtues of the samurai: meiyo = honor

As for the last word - Loyalty - this word can be written with one ideogram (like he did) or with two ideograms, like this: 忠義. Considering the awful drawing of the word above (honor), it was the a wise decision to choose the simpler variant :)

Monday, May 7, 2012

Tribal heart tattoo

Hi! In this post I'll present you two of my favorites tattoos:

Tribal heart tattoo 1. Ideogram meaning: 失恋 disappointed love / broken heart / unrequited love. Japanese: kanji: 失恋; hiragana: しつれん; reading: shitsuren. Simplified chinese: Hànzì: 失恋; pinyin: shīliàn

Tribal heart tattoo 2. Ideogram meaning: 失恋 disappointed love / broken heart / unrequited love. Japanese: kanji: 失恋; hiragana: しつれん; reading: shitsuren. Simplified chinese: Hànzì: 失恋; pinyin: shīliàn

Usually when I draw a tattoo I try to integrate one or more ideograms (either japanese Kanji or chinese Hanzi) in various tribal or floral patterns. In this case, I've used some tribal-style hearts and the word 失恋 (disappointed love / unrequited love / to lose one's love / being lovelorn).
This word (失恋) has the same meaning both in chinese and in japanese (of course, the pronunciations are different: the japanese pronunciation is shitsuren and the chinese pronunciation is shīliàn - first tone and the fourth tone).

If you like these two tattoos you can find them (and many others) on my website, www.seiza.ro.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A tattoo for those who love the japanese poetry (1)

Hi!

Here's my last tattoo-design for those who love Japan and the japanese culture: a haiku written by Kobayshi Issa: "Yo no naka wa / Jigoku no ue no / Hanami kana" = In this world, We walk above the hell, Gazing at flowers (or: In this world / We walk on the roof of Hell / Gazing at flowers)". The second translation is more beautiful but less correct: "ue" means "above; up; over", no roof.

First, let's see the design:

In the image above are two variants of the same Haiku. There is a little difference between these two variants - the last word of the third verse is written in hiragana in the first variant (in the right side of the image) and in kanji in the second variant (in the lest side of the image). Both variants are correct - the word "kana" (an emphatic word, equivalent with "Alas!") can be written in kanji, but usually is written in hiragana.

In the image above, I've split the Haiku in three lines (following the three phrases of the Haiku); anyway, traditionally, the Haiku were printed in a single vertical line, like this:

The Haiku written on a single vertical line. In this variant, I've written the last word of the Haiku in hiragana. (there are 3 lines because I've written the same Haiku with 3 types of fonts - just choose the one you like the most):

The Haiku written on a single vertical line. In this variant, I've written the last word of the Haiku in kanji. (there are 3 lines because I've written the same Haiku with 3 types of fonts - just choose the one you like the most):

Kanji tattoos