Kanji tattoos

Long years ago, tatoos were used for amulets, to describe their ranks, and for the symbol of their religious. These reasons varies in different culture and countries, however it had they had their own meanings to it.




photo from (http://in-japanese-tattoos.blogspot.com/2008/06/tattoo-designs-in-japanese-tattoos.html)


Nowaday, there are increasing numbers of artists, which indicate to many defferent designs for tattoos.

Whenever you walk into the tattoo shop, there are tons of designins for you to pick, and it may take the entire day. There are pretty flowers and butterflies. How about huge tiger on your chest and awesome dragon on your back?
People also get names of their love ones to remember them.

As we all see, tattoos are like paints and your boby is the canvas.

However, you need to remember that it is permanent.

There are some people, who are (hopefully) interested in Japan, get Japanese character, as known as "kanji" on their body.


......And there are the problems.

Sure, it may look awesome to foreigners; but to us, japanese, some look ridiculously odd.
We just don't have confidence to ask them "where did you get that tattoo?" or "why?"


So here are some example of "strange" Japanese character tattoos:



















The first example, this guy has three characters on his right arm 愛憎悔.
The first letter "愛" means "love" and you might have already seen this letter before. It is a pretty popular word, since it means "love". It is pronounced "ai" just like "I" in English.
The second letter "憎" means "hateful." It is very opposite from the first letter.
Then the third letter "悔" means "regret."

.....I am hoping he is not symbolizing his love life, because i will feel bad for him.














Here is the next example.

This man has the tatto saying "raymond 万が一 r.i.p. my friend 1984-2005"
We understand that he is remembering his friend, named Raymond. However the word "万が一" means "Just in case."
Therefore if we translate the whole sentence in English it is read "Raymond, just in case, rest in peace my friend 1984-2005"

Now do you know what we mean by "strange"?

Remember, and I am going to say this again, that tattoo is permanent.
Make sure you know what the character means if you are going to get one, because you are going to have to carry it for your entire life.
If you do not want to get laughed at by Japanese, ask the native speakers or someone who really knows the meanings of the word before you "paint" yourself.


photos used for examples from
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/kanji.html

Matsu Japan
http://www.matsu-japan.jp