Japanese VS Gibberish Tattoos
Some regard it as a religious requirement, for some culture it gives a sense of belonging, and for many it is a common form of punishment. But nonetheless we cannot dispute the fact that tattooing your body is part of today’s culture, especially in the western world.
In contrary to the popular beliefs, in Japan (入れ墨) reads as Irezumi is more often than not associated with the Japanese underworld criminals (Yakuza) and if you diligently trace it back to China, they despise the practice and even labeled the Japanese “barbarian” for doing it. (that explains why YaoMing doesn’t have a Tattoo even though its rampant in the NBA)
So Why this Kanji Tattoo fad?
We believe that apart from most western celebrities spotting the fashion, the main reason to have a Kanji Tattoo is the special feeling you get by having an “unknown” characters dancing on your skin, kind of remind you of listening and becoming a fan of Korean boyband, although all you can apprehend is “Anyong Haseyo”.
Also Japanese character tattoos appeals so much to the crowd because it inspire conversation and attention due to the lack of surrounding knowledge of the characters. And isn’t that what people tattoo their body for? Attention?
David Beckham Showing off his Kanji Tattoo
What a lot of readers that lives outside the CJK World (Yes..CJK stands for Chinese Japanese Korean) don’t know is that, not only ignorance of what the character means would leave an embarrassing unerasable gibberish (which apparently is very costly and painful to remove), but it would also lead to nasty people planting some practical joke on your body.
How often do we see world-famous celebrities making tattoo mistakes? Which ends up being a laughing stock in Asian forums..
 |
 |
 |
| Defaced Symbol | Being Inked Backward | Missing Strokes |
It Sticks forever on you, and it cost more than a mere embarrassment to remove, so before you get “Pink Gay Lord” or “Hole-Fisting Dragons” smeared all over your skins, it is best to calm down, and think.. if you really want this tattoo or not? A hasty decision will often result in a regrettable and painful designs.
Useful Advice IF you have to get a Japanese Tattoo
1. Consult someone who understands or have learned the language (someone with JLPT level 2 at least)
2. After finding the words you desire, check with your CJK (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) friends, to make sure it is not a weird phrase in their language (Yes, sometimes the same characters can mean different in different culture)
3. To save money and time find printable tattoo designs online, so that you can print and bring to your trusted tattoo artist.
(they will love you for it!)
Here are some reliable sites that sells printable Kanji tattoo designs:
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
| Related Posts: |
|
Teen arrested for tattooing young female roommate with sewing needle 3 men arrested at festival over jumping on portable shrines |
Full RSS Feed
Though at the moment there is a bandwidth limit exceeded warning up, a good blog site to have a chuckle at bad kanji tats can be found at http://www.hanzismatter.com/
Yo. Nice to see another poster, but jeez, can’t we edit out some of those careless grammar mistakes??
Hey Rated-R,
sorry for the inconvenience,
email sent,
thanks for commenting!
Anton
Looking at the bios, seems Anton is not a native English speaker. But yes, editing always helps.
I complained about the han character tattoos to a co-worker in Shanghai and he indicated tattoos were becoming more common. I can only imagine there must be gibberish English tattoos around China.
Getting tattoos for attention? This kind of over generalisation leads only to discrimination of which we don’t need any more of. For those of you out there who are rather conservative (met lots-Westerners that is- in my 5 years in Japan), you may not realise that it is a rite of passage and deeply spiritual experience. Yes some will jump on the bandwagon as with anything,
but keep in mind the many cultures for whom tattooing is a deeply sacrosanct ritual.
I do totally agree with your point about doing the research on any language which you are unfamiliar with though…I get people assuming I don’t know what my tat means when I had it professionally translated from my own words- they do ruin it for all of us!
I simply ask you to be sensitive and not try to make everyone with tattoos seems superficial.
I would absolutely agree with you there. I got my tattoo when I was 32, after having taken plenty of time to think about what I would be able to live with permanently. It wasn’t kanji, but does carry a deeper significance to me than just something to show off for attention.
Okay, I shall stick to making fun of tramp stamps and silly tats and leave genuinely meaningful ones like the full-face tattoos of the Pacific and New Zealand in peace. Anyone who gets one of those gets my respect….
I agree with The Black Dog, I have lived in Japan for six years now and had my kanji tat for about 8 years. I was already studying Japanese at the time that I knew what I wanted and how to make sure it was correct. Not a rite of passage or spur of the moment thing either. I love getting tattoos in another language and think of it as a beautiful accent to the body, a way of expression of who I am of all my tattoos, only one of them has been asked to be covered during my time in Japan, the one that wasn’t kanji. I prefer the oriental look for tattoos because of the beauty and the detail, it truly is an art but what makes me sad is I am seeing more and more western style tattoos but they lack the beauty that the west has though I am seeing western tattoos more often here in Japan, especially on women. I wonder if it is because of the lack of stigma that is attached to traditional Japanese tattoos that the western tattoo are seen more in the open or if it is just a dying style here. What are people’s thoughts? Has anyone met any tattoo prejudice while in Japan?
People love mine!
It’s a small sakura branch that creeps up the back of my left hand from my wrist to about the knuckle of my index finger.
For all that I was told about how tattoos are frowned upon, I get nothing but compliments on mine, and questions about whether it’s sakura or ume no hana, since the blossoms are a bit darker in color.
I had to cover it when I worked a brief stint at an English school, but otherwise I keep it right out in the open without a problem!
So does Beckham’s tattoo mean anything?
Why all the credits go to Japanese??? Japanese just borrowed..Or should I say Stole our way of writing anyway? Learn Chinese and you’ll find out that we are the original!
Stole? Don’t be an ass. For one thing, the Japanese are perfectly aware of where kanji come from – hence the name. Chinese claiming the Japanese stole kanji is like Italians claiming the English stole the Latin alphabet. For another thing, the Chinese still have Chinese characters.
Anyway, with those revolting “simplified” characters, Japanese (or Taiwanese, though they tend to the overly fancy) ones simply look better these days.
“So does Beckham’s tattoo mean anything?”
I will give serious props to any Westerner here (and decent props to any Japanese for that matter) who can actually read Beckham’s tattoo, which is written in classical grass script and that is not easy to read. The only ones I can make out without my dictionary of 崩し字 are 生、命、富, though admittedly it’s been a fair while since I read much Edo-period writing.
It is apparently read
生死有命 富貴在天, which is Chinese and means ‘Death and life have determined appointments, Riches and honors depends upon heaven.’It is a quote from the Analects of Confucius. So probably well known to an educated Chinese person, and possibly even to a well-educated Japanese person.
There’s no such thing as Chinese. At least not the way you’re arguing it, KwangChi82.
天不怕，地不怕，只怕廣東人說普通話！
天唔驚，地唔驚，只驚北方人講廣東話唔正！
t-shirt: cheaper, painless, changeable
Wow, you sound so cool!!!!
I bet you look GREAT with your t-shirts!!!!!
He probably does.
A tat not earned with blood and sweat is about as authentic as a medical degree from Latin America. Sure, you may have studied really hard between margarita-fueled benders, maybe even been top of your class. But you’ll always know deep down, you’re a fake doctor.
As a genreal rule, the more someone talks about their tats, the less likely they have anything interesting to say.
I don’t really hate people who get tats, I just hate people who talk about them with every damned person they meet.
That’s just the most stupid comment I’ve ever read in my life
although I also cannot stand people who talks about their tattoos with everyone they meet on the street
it’s so god damn annoying!
Korean dont even use Han Characters anymore?
what do you mean there’s no such thing as Chinese? if Chinese as Han then yes
most of Japanese culture are learned off from Tang dynasty
dont say stole ..they just adopted them…
it’s no doubt that some of the Japanese culture are very unique from Chinese
japanese adopted han characters not stole..
The link to “planting some practical joke” is an article that is totally bogus. The bottom of the article’s page even says as much and you can google the veracity of it. Please do better research on your blog posts.
–Getting tattoos for attention?–
i loled my arse off when some dude in my club got an “nice tattoo”. because in a central asia it were his death sentence. (there was a gang of kanibals and sect-killers who used a same tattoo.people do still hunt them instead to call the police)
—–Learn Chinese and you’ll find out that we are the original!—–
whahahahaha.. first of all there is no “Chinese” only Mandarin or “so called Mandarin dialekts”. you as chinese should know it. i congrad you you just shot yourself into the foot.
——japanese adopted han characters not stole..———
sorry dude but;
japanese adopted han-dynasty writing system charcters. “Han” is an ethnic group inside of PRC.
aside that.. well, many girls have an “Arschgeweih” (tramp stamp. directly translated: “arse-antler”) today i saw 2 women whose “arse-antler” became “arsehole-antler”.(age+force of gravity do it work)
welcome to real world.
Han shaped the east asian civilization and culture
when you refer to Chinese its usually referred as Han..
han dynasty writing system characters and han characters basically mean the same..im not sure what point you were tryibng to make…han dynasty was a dynasty of han people..thats why its called han characters…
As someone heavily invested in a tattoo-removal franchise, I advise everyone to be spontaneous as possible when getting inked. All those asian-y characters look great four inches high across your back, and it only matters what it means to you.
P.S. Getting a tattoo while sober is uncool and ruins the experience.
Tattoo removal, I’ve heard, is more painful than getting tattooed. I’ve seen video of it being done and it aint pretty.
How many tattoos have you seen with “ain’t” ? Maybe a new trend will start?