Chinese Tattoos
Chinese Symbol Tattoo
There's more to Chinese tattoos than just the symbol tattoos, although tattoos have quite a negative connotation in traditional Chinese culture. In fact, there was a belief that the body is a sacred gift from one’s parents and should not be altered in any permanent way – which of course includes tattooing.
Ci Shen - The Chinese Tattoo
Despite the negative connotation of the Chinese tattoo, there has always been tattooing in China. The Chinese word for tattoo is Ci Shen, literally meaning puncture the body.The first Chinese tattoos were considered a punishment – sort of a mark of disgrace. Criminals were marked with a face tattoo and forced to live in exile. This practice is called Ci Pei in Chinese.
Even in modern China today, tattoos are considered to be connected with the underworld and triads somehow, although this attitude is slowly changing. Despite the dubious attitudes towards tattooing, there is some evidence that tattooing and other body art are making inroads among Chinese youth today.
Chinese Tribal Tattoos
The Chinese tattoo doesn't have a very interesting history, but there are several ethnic minorities in China who do have a strong tattoo tradition. The most important ones are the Drung, Dai and Li tribes.
Drung Tattoos
The Drung are an ethnic group that live in the Yunnan province.
The woman of the Drung tribe used to tattoo their faces when they reached the age of 12, as a symbol of maturity. The tattoos were done between the eyebrows and around the mouth, resembling a butterfly or diamond design.
About 3 centuries ago, the women of the Drung tribe were often attacked by other ethnic groups and to avoid being raped, they used tattoos to make themselves less attractive. Some of these tribal tattoos resembled moustaches.
Of course, modern tattoo equipment was not available 300 years ago, thorns were used to puncture the skin and charcoal was used instead of tattoo ink.
Dai Tattoos
The Dai are also an ethnic minority living in southern Yunnan. Children as young as 5 were tattooed, and then again at the age of 14, as a symbol of sexual maturity.
Men were tattooed on strong muscles, woman between the eyebrows or on the hand or arm. Black tiger tattoos or dragon tattoos were the most popular designs.
The people of the Dai tribe used their tattoos as a talisman, to keep monsters away.
Li Tattoos
The Li are an ethnic group living in tribes on Hainan Island. Tattoos play an important role in the Li women's life (both sexes were tattooed, although it was more common for women) and their tattoo tradition can be traced back to 3000 years ago.
When girls reached the age of 12, they receive their first tattoos on the neck, face and throat. Over the next several years, the girl's arms and legs were tattooed as well. The tattoos meant that they were ready for marriage, they were a rite of passage.
Men were tattooed as well, but for medicinal purposes.
Chinese Symbol Tattoos
Chinese characters tattoo meaning 'God'
A word of warning though: research the Chinese character you are interested in thoroughly, you don't want to be the subject of a story like this one:
There was this article in the newspaper a couple of years ago about a teenager who paid $180 to have his arm tattooed with Chinese characters. He wanted the Mandarin characters for "Love, honor and obey" etched on his skin, but he got quiet a shock when he learned his Chinese tattoo really meant: "At the end of the day, this is an ugly boy". He found out the truth when he noticed the effect his tattoo had on a woman serving at a Chinese restaurant, who reluctantly translated the tattoo for him. Going back to the tattoo shop, he found out it had closed. He is now planning to spend over $1200 on laser tattoo removal.If you are thinking about getting a Chinese writing tattoo, make sure you get your translation from a reliable source. Make sure your tattoo design really means what you think it does (by using our professional translating service)!
Also, make sure that the tattoo artist you select is able to reproduce the Chinese characters correctly. Find a tattoo artist who has had experience with Chinese characters tattoos and can render the characters the right way.
Hanzi and Kanji
Lower Back Chinese Writing
There are about 47,000 Hanzi characters, but many of them are unused. To be fully literate, you need to know about 4000 of these Chinese characters. Most Chinese words are written with multiple characters, one for each syllable.
Besides traditional Chinese there is also Simplified Chinese, an attempt to increase literacy in China. Simplified Chinese characters have less number of strokes than traditional Chinese. They are used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore.
Here's an example, on the left (in black) is the traditional Chinese character for "Chinese", next to it (in red) is the simplified character:
Here are the most popular Chinese symbols used as a tattoo and their meaning:
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Kanji is the Japanese word for "Han characters" and are Chinese characters that are used in the Japanese writing system. Kanji are simplified traditional Chinese characters, but most of them have different simplifications than simplified Chinese. There are about 50,000 kanji characters.
Kanji are popular tattoo designs, not in China or Japan though, only in the West.
Chinese Dragon Tattoos
Chinese dragon tattoo
The Chinese dragon is a long snake-like creature, usually with 5 claws and without wings.
As opposed to Western beliefs, the dragon in Chinese culture is a benevolent creature that wards of evil spirits. It symbolizes good luck, fertility, happiness and immortality.
In Chinese culture there is the belief that wearing the image of a dragon on you is considered very unlucky. The Chinese symbol for dragon on the other hand is considered lucky.
Sometimes you see a person with a tattoo of a dragon combined with the Chinese dragon character. This always reminds me of these picture books that are used to teach children how to read. Imagine a tattoo of an eagle with the English word 'Eagle' below it, kind of silly, not?
Chinese Tiger Tattoo
Chinese Symbol Meaning "Tiger"
Here are some supposed characteristics of people born in a tiger year:
- Courageous
- Self-reliant
- Friendly
- Hopeful
- Vain
- Lack of attantion and care
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