Japanese Symbol for Strength – A Popular Tattoo Design


January 12th, 2010

Finding a Japanese character for a tattoo design can be a hard choice. There are countless characters to select from, it is worth taking the time to look into and understand all of the choices. Unlike English, where there are a limited number of letters in the alphabet, the Japanese alphabets offer a vast number of symbols to pick from. There are a number of tattoo designs that are always seem to be in style. One of these is the Japanese symbol for strength. This article will tell you more about this Japanese character and popular Japanese tattoo symbol.

Kanji is the preferred way to write strength in Japanese as a tattoo symbol. If you have not learned Japanese, you may not be aware that there are three Japanese alphabets. These are called hiragana, katakana and kanji.

Although it is possible to write the word Strength in all of the alphabets, most people will want to write it in Kanji. Kanji is usually used for concepts and Katakana is usually used for Names and foreign words. Kanji is the word in Japanese that is used to refer to chinese characters. These characters were originally simplified from characters brought to Japan from China.

To write the Japanese character for strength, it only needs two strokes. Some characters can be much more complicated and made up of numerous strokes, so the symbol for strength is one of the most simple characters to learn and draw. When you see it, it may remind you of an arm muscle bulging with strength. ‘Chikara’ is the Japanese word for strength. It is pronounced Chi Ka Ra.

Some of the other Japanese symbols that are always popular for tattoos are also linked to the family theme These include father, mother, daughter, sister and brother. If you have looked at all of the Japanese symbols related to family and still can’t choose, then you could always go for a universally popular character, the symbol for Love. In Japanese the word for Love is ‘ai’ and is only one character of 13 strokes, which makes it a very good choice if you are looking for a symbol with a strong meaning in one character.

Check out the images of Japanese tattoo symbols at my site where there are lots of tattoo designs and symbols. Click Here To Go There Now: http://www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com

Japanese Tattoos – How To Avoid A Big Mistake


December 23rd, 2009

A frequent worry faced by all customers of tattoo artists getting Japanese tattoos is what they are going to get is not what they asked for. Yes, it happens often that the Japanese meaning of the kanji symbols in the tattoo has a completely different meaning from what one had asked their tattoo artist for in English. There are a number of reasons. Let’s see why these mistakes happen and ways to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

The prime reason for this is Japanese tattoo artist does not have the language ability to understand what you are asking for or what it should be in Japanese. There are many tattoo artists who are proficient in tattooing but not in kanji stokes. They may not be able to understand the exact meaning of your English words and have translated it into a different kanji.

There are also times where the strokes go wrong in representing them in kanji which results in a completely different meaning. We have also heard of some cases where the tattoo artist acts unprofessionally, and used the wrong kanji symbols on their clients because they didn’t like their clients attitude towards Japanese culture or tattoos.

Whatever the reasons are, how reasonable they are, none of us would be willing for such mistakes to sit permanently on our body forever. There are several ways we could avoid being the victim of such mistakes. After all we know that prevention is always better than the cure. The first thing we should do is to research a lot about the kanji symbols and strokes. The internet is the best first hand easily accessible source for such information. The second tip would be to approach a professional language translator.

Though it costs a lot, it saves your time and money that you spend after you understand it did not communicate the meaning you wanted it to mean. Approaching some professional in person may be out of budget for some of us, since we are planning to already spend so much on Japanese tattoo kanji symbols. If you do not have a budget to hire a professional interpreter, then it is good to approach some professors or students from universities which provide international language courses. If you have a friend or colleague who is a native Japanese speaker, you could even approach them to confirm the meaning of the kanji before getting it on your body as a permanent tattoo. Knowing the ways to avoid the common Japanese tattoo kanji mistakes, we could save time, money, and energy.

Browse the images of Japanese tattoo symbols at my site where there are pages of tattoo designs and symbols. Click Here To Go There Now: http://www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com

Japanese Tattoo Symbols – How To Pick The Right One For You


December 8th, 2009

If you are looking for a tattoo design, you may be thinking of using a Japanese tattoo symbol. If you are thinking about a Japanese tattoo you can choose from a traditional tattoo design, which is more like a picture or you could choose a tattoo symbol that represents a name or a particular word that has a special meaning to you.

Japanese tattoos are called ‘Irezumi’ in Japanese. There is a long history of tattoo art in Japan. The traditional kind of tattoo designs can be very extensive and cover the arms, shoulders and back or even the whole body. The designs tend to be elaborate and include snakes, dragons, koi fish or even flowers. As the designs can cover a large part of the body, it can often take many sessions to complete the art and cost a large amount of money. In Japanese these kinds of designs can be associated with the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) and so they are not favoured by most people.

An alternative to a traditional Japanese tattoo design is to use a symbol used in Japanese writing. The first thing to know if you are considering a symbol tattoo is that there are three writing systems in Japan, hiragana, katakana and kanji. Hiragana are used for parts of speech, word endings and words that can not be represented in Kanji. Katakana is used for foreign words and foreign names. Kanji are adapted originally from Chinese characters and is the most complicated of all the writing systems.

If you are thinking of using a Japanese symbol for your tattoo design, you can either use one of the writing systems to represent a name, or you could choose one of kanji characters. Some of the most popular kanji characters that are used are those that represent the meanings of Love, Family members, Happiness, Luck, Samurai, Wisdom and even Zen.

Choose your Japanese tattoo symbol carefully. Study the different options for the designs and if you go for a symbol made from Kanji or another Japanese writing system, take extra care to ensure that it will be written correctly. Make sure you are going to happy with the design, location and size of it, and it will be with you for the long term.

Check out the images of Japanese tattoo symbols at my site where there are pages of tattoo designs and symbols. Click Here To Go There Now: http://www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com

Japanese Kanji Tattoos – Tips To Avoid A Big Mistake


November 26th, 2009

Japanese kanji tattoos are very popular as a style of tattoo design. One character can represent the meaning that you would like to express in a small stylish design. Getting a Japanese kanji tattoo does have its dangers though, as it is easy to get it wrong. Read on to find out what you can go wrong so you make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

If you are after a Japanese tattoo design, you may think the easiest and quickest thing to do is to use an online translation tool. Enter the english word for the tattoo that you want and you will get the Japanese translation back. You can then get a tattoo for the Japanese word that you have found right? The problem is that online translation tools are not perfect, and sometimes get it very wrong. You cannot rely on these types of tools for something so important and it is worth the time and money to get a native speaker to do the translation for you.

Many people want a tattoo design that represents their name. If that is what you want, you should understand that Japanese is made up of three writing systems, Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana, and the differences between them.

Foreign names should be written in Katakana only as Katakana is the writing system used for foreign words, including names. Although it is possible to come up with a Kanji, or Chinese character combination for most names, it is a made up and artificial way of writing a foreign name that is not used in Japan.

Once you have selected a design you may have it on a stencil ready for the tattoo artist. If the tattoo artist is not familiar with Japanese characters, it is quite possible that they could get the orientation wrong. It has happened that the character has ended up reversed or upside down. It is best to find a tattoo artist that is familiar with Japanese and Kanji, but if you cannot, at least mark the orientation of the character clearly so that there is no chance that it will be wrong.

For images of Japanese tattoo symbols visit my site where there are pages of tattoo designs and symbols. Click Here To Go There Now: http://www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com

categories: tattoos, tattoo, japanese tattoos, tattoo designs