What does my tattoo really mean?

[Maika]

Hi everyone, could anyone help figure out what my chinese tattoo really mean?

[Demonic_Duck]

I can just about convince myself it could be 康.

[aone]

I see none Chinese character, tell me I was wrong.

[歐博思]

I tend to agree with Demonic_Duck. In that case 康 would mean like 'health' or 'healthy'. Let's see what others see.

[studychinese]

I'm with aone. I see nothing.

[Demonic_Duck]

For clarification. Excuse my terrible handwriting (made even worse by writing with a mouse).

[Basil]

It could just as easily not be 康。 Your picture disregards a small 横 in the middle. 

 

To me the character looks closer to 康 than something like 療, but it's hard to say.

[MPhillips]

It stands to reason that it should be 康 。（It looks more like 康 than anything else I could think of & it has a positive meaning.）

[Basil]

I'm not doubting your reasoning abilities, just those of the tattooist...

[MPhillips]

BTW Basil & Demonic Duck, has tattooing caught on in China yet? The Japanese people I know are horrified by tattoos--I know Chinese people used to view them similarly but I haven't been there in so long.

[Basil]

I see tattoos on a weekly basis. I don't really note them down. Lots of rough simple outlines, an occasional sleeve. I don't think I ever saw one when I first came, ten years ago. So about 30 years behind uk trends and probably longer behind us trends.

I still probably see more tattoo parlours than their resultant artwork... Maybe lots are hidden in coy locations...

[MPhillips]

难以置信！

[Demonic_Duck]

I see plenty of folks with tattoos in Beijing - it's not all that uncommon, and in modern times doesn't carry the implication of being in a gang that it still carries in Japan. With that said, there's still a certain amount of prejudice against people having tattoos, particularly women. My ex-girlfriend had a small, inconspicous one and her father essentially emotionally blackmailed her into getting it removed (despite several visits to the hospital, it didn't come off, barely even faded).

 

On the other hand, as a white foreigner you're almost expected to have tattoos.

[Shelley]

"The Japanese people I know are horrified by tattoos"

 

@MPhillips I am not sure I understand this statement. Is it because of the history tattoos have had in japan or just the general horribleness (my opinion) of tattoos.

 

I would have thought tattoos would be very common in japan and not just gang tattoos. I am probably wrong but I thought tattoos were fairly normal in quite a few eastern cultures.

 

I have to say it was well spotted Demonic_Duck, finding the character in the middle of the flowers in the picture. I too, was of the opinion that there was no character.

[MPhillips]

In past centuries being tattooed on the face was used as a punishment in both China & Japan (better than the death of a thousand cuts or being crucified of course--the Japanese picked up on crucifixion from their contact with Christianity), so I believe in both places people have had a lingering aversion to them. Of course I guess a Japanese person who thinks of the yakuza as cool would probably think tattoos were cool too! In 2012 the Mayor of Osaka Hashimoto Toru went on a campaign to rid the municipal workforce of tattoos--he ordered them to have any obvious tattoos removed or face dismissal.

[Shelley]

oh interesting, a form of punishment. I can see why.

 

There are a few professions where tattoos will certainly lesson or even stop your chances of getting the job.

 

Slightly off topic but does anyone know their attitude to body piercing?

[Basil]

Grosses most people out, but some are beginning to see quite how culturally enriching a pin in a strange location can be.

[liuzhou]

 

has tattooing caught on in China yet?

 

Tattooing has a long history in China.

 

Here is a poem from the Tang Dynasty

 

 

 

FROM THE CITY-TOWER OF LIUZHOU TO MY FOUR FELLOW-OFFICIALS AT ZHANG, DING, FENG, AND LIAN DISTRICTS

At this lofty tower where the town ends, wilderness begins;

And our longing has as far to go as the ocean or the sky....

Hibiscus-flowers by the moat heave in a sudden wind,

And vines along the wall are whipped with slanting rain.

Nothing to see for three hundred miles but a blur of woods and mountain --

And the river's nine loops, twisting in our bowels....

This is where they have sent us, this land of tattooed people --

And not even letters, to keep us in touch with home.

I've never come across anyone in China with a nonsensical tattoo in English, though. That seems to be confined to idiots in the west who get tattooed in a language they don't know, by tattooists who know even less.

 

As ever I recommend half an hour on http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/ 

[MPhillips]

Yes, you're right, I should have asked "Has tattooing caught on amongst Han Chinese people yet?".

[langxia]

Some input :

Japan : I have been talking to a friend who has some very traditional Japanese tattoos, he is a westerner but went to Japan to get them done, he told me that at some venues like saunas, swimming pools, etc. there are signs that say no tattooed people are allowed in. And even he as a westerner wasn't able to get in. The tattoos he has were done by a tattoo artist that as he says told him that around 70% of her customers are gang members. He himself is an artist and only interested in it because of the art. So tattoos are still seen as very bad in Japan.

China: I can only speak for Beijing, and I have to say that I hang around with people from the Punk and Skinhead Scene when I am there. I see a lot of tattooed people and it seems that it is getting more and more trendy to have a tattoo. I know that sometimes people told me that i couldn't enter the army or the party with my tattoos

Another thing is that I never had the impression that in China the gangs had many tattoos, the full body suit is more a Japanese Gang style thing. And the Chinese Gang Members I had the "pleasure" meeting had very bad tattoos and most of them only one consisting of a dragon on the chest. (And they all had the same one) If they had one at all.

So I think that in China you will have no problems if you have some tattoos (or a lot) especially if you are a foreigner no one will bother you. And I also think that we will see more and more young Chinese with tattoos (even more than you can see already in bigger Citys.)