When considering a Japanese Kanji for your tattoo you should always consult with a highly qualified Japanese/English translator who’s native language is English – not a Japanese person that’s learned English as a second language. Why? Because you need to communicate precisely with a native speaker of English that thinks like you do in English and is also qualified to select the Kanji that you want.
Japanese Kanji are historically derived from Chinese but the difference in written meaning (with the exception of simple similiar pictograms e.g. “up” “down”) and respective grammars between the two languages are poles apart. There are about 50,000 Kanji (with enough multiple “readings” depending upon context to drive the uninitiated thoroughly crazy) in the Daikanwa Jiten lit. “Major Japanese Dictionary”. The average Japan college graduate must memorize about 2000 just to read a newspaper.
Examples of Kanji by category:
1. Shōkei-moji
(象形文字)
2. Shiji-moji
(指事文字)
3. Kaii-moji
(会意文字)
4. Keisei-moji
(形声文字)
5. Tenchū-moji
(転注文字)
6. Kashaku-moji
(仮借文字)
To confuse the novice even more there are additional differences between Japanese Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana, Hentaigana, and Manyongana. All of these super cool Japanese logosyllabic characters can be used for your tattoo….if you hook up with a good translator.
Get it right the first time and or you’ll end up with a weird Japanese Kanji tattoo (that’s Chinese and not Japanese) and could translate as something pretty stupid. Skilled tattoo artists are good because they know their business. Translators are the same. Check out the Japanese Kanji Tattoo Social Group I’ve started. I’ve uploaded (5) Kanji with Romanized pronunciations and English translations.
Great info there and very true, i had a lady come to me with some kanji that she thought read something (cant remember what) but after meeting her karate or judo or whatever sport it was (visiting instructors) she realised it wasnt what she thought it meant at all, they were nice enough to draw it out for her so she could get it right, luckily she was only missing one symbol so we were able to correct it.
Thanks for your comment Izarrasink. Your reference is exactly what happens i.e. folks get tattooed then find out after the tattoo that there’s been a goof — sometimes a bad one. Japanese Kanji are extremely complicated. Aside from my categories example there are also the issues of Kanji stroke order (is the stroke horizontal left to right/right to left?), (vertical top to bottom/bottom to top?) stroke count, (are there 20 or 21 strokes and does it make a difference?) certain “radicals” used to generally define the Kanji etc. All of these granularities can seriously impact the visual aesthetics and fundamental meaning.
Hi Chance666,
Thanks for this. You’ve got some cool tattos! If you mean “Proper name” (noun) as in the name of a person, place, or thing then yes, katakana is often used. Insofar as I can see the image at http://www.thetattooforum.com/album.php?albumid=689 your tattoo could be a Proper name noun, a verb, an adjective, or an idiom. As you know it says (チャ=cha) (ン-n) (ス-ce) or “chance” in English. What did you want it to mean? The English word “chance” in written and spoken Japanese has been used in Japan for a long time.
Generally speaking, katakana (derived from components of kanji) are used to represent foreign words that the Japanese have no kanji equivlent for e.g.
1. Coca Cola： コカ・コーラ
2. Los Angeles: ロス・アンジェルス
3. Television: テレビ
4. Alaska: アラスカ
5. McDonalds: マクドナルド
6. Sex: セックス
7. Bob： ボッブ
8. Joe: ジョー
9. Mary： マリー
10. New York ニューヨーク
Foreign technical and scientific terms are also commonly written in katakana e.g. インターネット = Internet.
Katakana are also used too represent sounds, words that a writer want to emphasize, and in the advertising business to lend buzz or style to a product.
Katakana are also used for transcription of Japanese company names e.g. Suzuki is written スズキ, and Toyota is written トヨタ. In this example these katakana are being used as a kind of italics.
Basically you can write anything you want to with katakana vertically or horizontically. That’s one of the fascinating things about Japanese logosyllabic characters — their flexiblilty.
See you’re from Alaska. Great place. I like the Hatcher Pass area. Fairbanks is not my favorite place…:)
Thank you very much for the info… Chance is my name and that is why I got it. I was at the pool one day and someone stop and asked who chance was? At first I was taken off guard, so I asked why? She said the name on your back… I was like ohhh, that’s me. But I was so happy this was the first time someone had read my tattoo. I had research this online before I took it to the artist, found it is a few different places, but you are never for sure until someone reads it.
I only wish I had done it top to bottom instead of left to right! But I am happy to hear that it could be done as both.
Alaska is great, I live in Southeast, I have never been up to Fairbanks or that area, too damn cold me!
Glad my explanation was helpful. Drop me a line if your consider a new tattoo. And please tell your crew. Japanese logosyllabic characters can be written in the following ways.
1. Vertically: top to bottom ( typical traditional style for all character categories )
2. Horizontically: Left to right ( to give the character (especially katakana ) a “western” type feeling e.g. your name )
3. Horizontically: Right to left ( very traditional older style often seen on Buddhist temples e.g. the name of the temple will be written in kanji horizontically right to left on a kind of signboard hanging from the temple gate.
You can even write your name in kanji by selecting characters that are phonetically equivalent to a noun but where the meaning of the kanji has no relation to the noun. e.g 固化甲羅 = can be read as Coca Cola but is roughly translated as “solidification carapace”… Not a cool name.
Southeast is very nice. Lots of green and you’re right FB is way too cold.
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