An Introduction to Chinese tattoo and Popular Chinese Tattoo Designs

Chinese tattoos are becoming popular nowadays. Many famous stars are sporting Chinese characters as tattoos, thus the popularity of such. However, if you are genuinely interested in the Chinese culture and want to go beyond sporting a Chinese tattoo to show this, you can go as far as learn the Chinese language. It really isn’t as hard as you think it might be. And it will help you choose the right Chinese character or design for your tattoo.

When you want to have a Chinese tattoo etched forever in your skin, be sure to take note of the following tips to get the most of your tattoo. The Chinese language can be a bit complicated in terms of translating words or phrases from English, thus you need to take proper care before permanently putting something in your skin that isn’t right when translated to Chinese.

You need to take extra care when you choose the Chinese character or design for your tattoo. First, you need to get a sketch of the design that you want. You can print this out or have someone sketch it by hand. Then, ask the opinion of the Chinese people you know regarding the meaning of the design that you want. But don’t just stop asking at what the character or design means. Sometimes, your friends may not want to disappoint you and will agree to what you want when in fact it will be better if you work with another design.

Finding it appropriate, you can also try to tell your Chinese friends the thing you want to express or convey. This way you can get an idiomatic expression instead of a meaningless literal translation of what you want to say. If you want to have your name translated into Chinese for your tattoo, know that its translation in the different Chinese dialects may differ. This is not really a problem but it pays to know this fact.

Usually though English names are hard to translate into Chinese which is why you should ask your Chinese friend to give you a name in Chinese, if no possible translation exists for your name. Then, ask the opinion of other Chinese people with regards to your Chinese name and only keep the name if you really like it. A Chinese name is the coolest way to have a Chinese character or design tattooed on your skin.

Once you have the perfect design for your Chinese tattoo, don’t rush to any tattoo artist just yet because there are many ways a Chinese character can be written. Just like English words, Chinese characters can be written in classical, kid’s hand, modern, and several other kinds of fonts. For sure, you don’t want a regal meaning character to be written sloppily so take time in finding a tattoo artist who is good at calligraphy. As a test, you can ask him to reproduce the design you want and from there you can see if he can do a good job with your Chinese character tattoo.