Question

[Geoffreyhsu]

This may be very bad since I do come from a chinese backround. I am looking to get a tattoo piece done for my back honoring my family. I am doing 2 foo dogs with a backround of a temple and my family name in chinese characters. I have confirmed with my family members that the character was good. My question is the placement of the foo dogs and the color of the family name. The foo Dog info i found out was if you are looking at my back the male is on the right and female on the left. The paws are the area of concern. Is it left paw with sphere with male and left paw with female and cub, or right paw male and right paw female. The last thing is I am thinking of doing the family name in Black and want to make sure that was okay. I was told not to do it in red or white.

[Kamille]

About the foo dogs I found a lot of different combinations: left dog with right paw on the ball, left dog with left paw on the ball, female with a ball, female with a cub, both paws on the ball, no ball at all, etc.

 

It has to be symmetrical though. And the female seems to always be on the left and the male on the right. That is if you can make a difference: sometimes there is no clue as to which dog belongs to which gender.

You shouldn't worry too much: a lot of combinations are possible.

Of course, wikipedia tells about a "traditional pattern" but I don't think there really is such a thing. In my observation there's a lot of different patterns out there.

 

I advise you to take a look at a few pictures by yourself: 

https://www.google.com.tw/search?q=%E7%9F%B3%E7%8D%85&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=dYlsU7jkI8f2lAW_yYGwCg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=600

https://www.google.com.tw/search?q=%E7%9F%B3%E7%8D%85&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=dYlsU7jkI8f2lAW_yYGwCg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=600

https://www.google.fr/search?q=foo+dogs+%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=oYJsU8zbD8uikgWFiYGICQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1366&bih=600#q=foo+dogs&tbm=isch

 

Family name in black is fine. I don't know about the other colors. Red and white indeed seem odd. They don't "seem" auspicious to me, as far as I know. But I can't be sure. You should ask someone else. 

Having said that, I am positive that black is fine anyways.

[Lu]

It sounds like a cool idea and it's good that you have confirmation about the right character. However, perhaps note that traditionally, Chinese are not supposed to get tattoos, as you get your body from your parents and you're not supposed to alter it like that. Of course, in the end it's up to you, but perhaps you want to make sure that your family appreciates the way you want to honour them.

White is not a good colour as it's the colour of mourning. Not sure why red is not appropriate here, but black is definitely fine.