Tattoo help needed again please

[Marcmc1979]

Apologies in advance  

I am another person needing help identify a tattoo I had over 20 years ago. I am guilty in my youth of having tattoos added without full understanding. I am about to get a cover up and wanted to see if anybody can help identify what it may mean before I consider covering it. 

Thank to those who take the time to read and reply 

 

Marc

[Lu]

At first I though it said 小畜 xiǎo chù 'small domestic animal', but then I realised it's one character, 慉 xù 'to foster, to care for; to bear'. I don't recall ever seeing that character before, so it's likely that it is pretty rare (but someone might show up in the next post to tell me that it is in fact widely used and I just missed it.)

 

The calligraphy is pretty awful. The tattooist clearly did not know Chinese and was probably working of a pretty bad example sheet. On the plus side, it doesn't say something bad or inappropriate, but that's really the only positive thing about this tattoo. I'd say this is a very good candidate for a cover-up. I hope you get something really nice that both you and the tattoo artist understand and that you will still like in 20 years.

[Marcmc1979]

Thank you for your reply. 

I have come to love Asain culture.  The cover up will be a mixture of a temple and it's garden, with a guardian/samurai watching over my children's name in scroll. 

[Lu]

2 minutes ago, Marcmc1979 said:

I have come to love Asain culture.

I'm all for people loving cultures, but please realise that Asia stretches all the way from Turkey to Japan and every country has its own distinct culture. Japanese culture is very different from Chinese is very different from Korean, etcetera. Make sure you do lots of research before getting any samurai tattoos. Note that in Japan, tattoos traditionally are a sign that the bearer is in organised crime - not a good thing to advertise. And I hope that you get your children's names in your own language, not Chinese or something else.

[Marcmc1979]

I understand it is not just simply Japan or China and meant no insult. I genuinely love all again culture and history. I am most passionate about Thailand. I love the history and heritage around Muay Thai.

Thank you again