tattoo Wu Wei

[sonic92x]

Hello
I want to do this tattoo and I wonder if I chose the symbol that is more approximate and relevant.
Which expresses this idea more and which is the correct drawing?
And also I wonder the meaning of the red characters in the corner does anyone know?

[sonic92x]

which one is correct form , because here is different types caligraphy ?

 

[TheBigZaboon]

Just curious... Why would you be so interested in a county in Anhui province that you'd want to have it tattooed on your butt, or wherever???

 

Dontcha think that if ya can't read the little red thingies, that ya really oughta be careful of the big black ones, too. All the calligraphy you included has exactly the same meaning, and expresses whatever idea it expresses in the same manner. There's no difference in that respect. The only difference you've shown is in the style of the calligraphy used.

 

Tattooing and branding (as they often served the same purpose) were generally reserved for criminals in Chinese society. And they were done on the cheeks and forehead so they were impossible to hide. In more modern times, tattoos were frowned upon as filial piety usually required you to keep your body the way your parents gave it to you...

 

Just askin'...

 

TBZ

[Demonic_Duck]

  

On 6/29/2022 at 12:40 PM, TheBigZaboon said:

Just curious... Why would you be so interested in a county in Anhui province that you'd want to have it tattooed on your butt, or wherever???

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei

 

No-one's gonna see this and assume you mean the county in Anhui, lol. It's actually a decent idea for a Chinese character too — better than the vast majority, anyway, as it's a concept that has deep cultural significance in Chinese, rather than a poor translation of "live laugh love" or some other nonsense.

  

On 6/29/2022 at 12:40 PM, TheBigZaboon said:

Tattooing and branding (as they often served the same purpose) were generally reserved for criminals in Chinese society. And they were done on the cheeks and forehead so they were impossible to hide. In more modern times, tattoos were frowned upon as filial piety usually required you to keep your body the way your parents gave it to you...

 

Plenty of young Chinese people have tattoos these days. It might be a bit more frowned upon by older generations, but it's become normalized enough (at least in big cities) that most people don't have any negative views of it.

 

Can't comment on what's considered good calligraphy, but personally I quite like the first and last ones in OP.

[Publius]

On 6/30/2022 at 12:47 AM, Demonic_Duck said:

Plenty of young Chinese people have tattoos these days. It might be a bit more frowned upon by older generations, but it's become normalized enough (at least in big cities) that most people don't have any negative views of it.

True. But the stigma (pun intended) hasn't disappeared altogether.

 

Just to illustrate my point: (from WeChat search)

黑恶势力29种常见外在表现形式：

1. 佩戴夸张金银饰品炫耀的人员和以凶兽纹身等彪悍、跋扈人员从事违法活动的。

-- no kidding.

 

And this:

《国家公务员录用暂行规定》第十四条 纹身者不能录用。

建议考生尽量不要带纹身报考公务员，如果已有纹身，应该在报考之前向招考单位做好咨询，最好清洗掉。

在考上之后进入面试体检环节，如果你所报考的职位按照《公务员录用体检特殊标准》的话，这些都会有影响的。即使你顺利进入机关事业单位，但怕进步机会渺茫。

 

And this:

纹身是大忌，空乘面试分分钟被pass。纹身只能去清洗，但不是所有的纹身都能完全清洗掉，需要反复清洗，有的清洗过后还会出现皮肤后遗症，形成疤痕。所以打算做纹身的同学，千万注意。

Related news:

一位母亲发现自己女儿背着自己弄了个纹身，在面试空乘的时候被人拒绝，而女孩母亲了解到清洗卫生需要花费4万元，所以女孩母亲觉得这个钱应该由纹身店出。

[Demonic_Duck]

OK, in that case I advise not getting a tattoo if you want to be a Chinese civil servant or a flight attendant for a Chinese airline. But if you want to do some crimes, make sure to get some badass tattoos and jewelry to match! (And I guess also do the other 28 things in the listicle too)

[Publius]

On 6/30/2022 at 4:57 AM, Demonic_Duck said:

OK, in that case I advise not getting a tattoo if you want to be a Chinese civil servant or a flight attendant for a Chinese airline. But if you want to do some crimes, make sure to get some badass tattoos and jewelry to match! (And I guess also do the other 28 things in the listicle too)

 

Anyways, OP's pictures express exactly the same idea using more or less the same script (行楷). The only difference is in penmanship.

 

#1, #2, #5 are okay to me. Just don't copy the calligrapher's signature and the red name chop!

 

And, you do know that 無為 means 'do nothing', right? Isn't the best practice of 'do nothing' simply . . . do nothing? Don't say I haven't tried...?

[TheBigZaboon]

Sorry... I guess sarcasm is a kinda lost art, except maybe in certain counties in Anhui.

 

I have to confess that my prejudices against tattoos are not politically correct. I particularly abhor tattoos on young women, as the foreign culture I've spent most of my adult life in used them as a mark of ownership of women by pimps and traffickers. 

 

Up until the scheduled onset of the Olympics about three years ago, tattoos were actually forbidden, even for men, in my upscale and expensive sports club in the heart of Tokyo. Even world class boxers were forbidden to have tattoos if they wanted to compete in public. But it was pointed out to Japanese authorities that there was about to be a flood of tattooed foreigners whose participation and cash were wanted, so just before the pandemic, signs displayed in the club forbidding tattoos discretely began to disappear.

 

In addition, as was pointed out, prejudices against tattoos have begun to wane in the younger generation. The singer, Amuro Namie, made tattoos a thing among young girls. That is until she decided that they weren't, and had hers removed.

 

The young girls who couldn't follow her example because they couldn't afford the expensive elective surgery were then left with a genuine problem. They were becoming young mothers, and tattoos were still taboo among their elders. If they showed up at school with their new young children, or wanted to take those children to public parks or pools, they were often turned away. The only solution many could afford was scarring over the offensive artwork.

 

My own experience with tattoos was growing up after WW II when tattoos were a 'man' thing, especially a 'military man' thing. My great uncle, a career Navy NCO, had forearms like Popeye, and a tattoo of a hula girl that he could make dance to the delight of me and my thirty or so cousins. But a guy who had a tattoo that people felt he had earned, like '82nd Airborne -- Death from Above', or the 'anchor, ball and eagle' of the US Marine Corps was a king to us children. In my father's shop, everyone knew everyone else's war record and experience (often already in evidence due to their tattoos), and they would point it out to me, without fail.

 

As I grew up and spent my short time in the military as an enlistee, I was extremely lucky to have never spent any time on a battlefield that was less than 200 years old. I never felt any desire or pressure to get a tattoo. But my peers often felt badly mistreated by their contemporaries, and expressed their feelings and resentment in their tattoos. But tattoos were still largely a 'military man' thing.

 

Acceptance of tattoos by my neices is still a work-in-progress. My prejudices incline me to say it will probably depend long-term on what those tattoos look like when they're 50 years old, or so.

 

Anyway, just a "maybe I should explain myself" morning here on the Kanto Plain.

 

Sorry.

 

TBZ

[yibeikafei]

On 6/29/2022 at 10:58 AM, sonic92x said:

which one is correct form , because here is different types caligraphy ?

All of them are correct, just written using different types of calligraphy, as you said.

 

無為 is acceptable as a tattoo, in my opinion, it's a popular philosophical concept. Like I wouldn't find it absurd if I saw it on someone. I saw people who had excerpts from 庄子 as tattoos. I think these kind of philosophical tattoos are common enough.

I lived in Beijing, Taipei and Kaohsiung so I am not sure if my experience is representative enough as these are all big cities, but I had plenty of local friends who had tattoos and no one in my circle, including parents and teachers, expressed strong negative opinions against tattoos. Maybe tiny bit of disapproval, but not to the extend of finding it entirely outrageous, or thinking that their children have turned to crime So yeah, I wouldn't necessarily worry about people thinking you are a criminal just because you have tattoos, but, like I said, Ive never lived in a small town or a small community and I don't know your circumstances, so...

 

Some examples in the pictures that you have shown are more "standard" than the others. For example, in my opinion, the fourth one is a little bit too experimental, so unless you're going for a more avant-garde look on purpose, I would skip that one. And in terms of the third one, maybe it's a bit too standard... So, I guess if you are going for the readability, its standard look is a good thing, but it's a bit too close to computer font type calligraphy for my taste. But again, most commonly used Chinese computer fonts were created based on historical calligraphy styles, so it's not strictly "bad calligraphy" per se. I personally like the 2nd and the 5th ones the best.

And, the red stamps are usually the name, or title, or the pseudonym of the original calligrapher, so you probably don't want to include that unless you are a big fan

[TheBigZaboon]

Maybe it's worth reading the posts above mentioning restrictions on tattoos with respect to employment again. You seeing "plenty of people" with tattoos in some of the cities you've been in really doesn't square with the posts on no tatts, or the restrictions on display of tatts, for people seeking certain seemingly desirable jobs, above. Obviously, those rules are for Chinese, not for foreigners. But you, even as a foreigner, still have to deal with attitudes in the societies where you want to live or work, especially work. If you rub someone's nose in your ability to defy conventions, you may not get very far. And making yourself look silly is never a good strategy for advancement, either

 

You mentioned that the sentiment expressed by the tatt was a worthy one, and a good candidate for display. But are you a native speaker fully cognizant of the ramifications of the Taoist principles involved? Frankly, I was surprised that a very well-informed native speaker came down more or less on my side in a discussion where I fully admitted my lack of extensive experience and my very strong prejudices on the issue of tattoos (admittedly mostly on females, but also on males if uninformed or insulting, even if by mistake). A foreigner's opinion should probably take a back seat to that of a well informed native, but that may just be my own prejudice.

 

I'm going to withdraw from any more comments on tattoos for the rest of my time here on this forum. But people come here often for advice on the appropriateness of tattoos, and usually are discouraged if they don't have a good idea of what they're about to do. But I personally think casual "Yeah, don't worry. No problem anymore. Everybody's doin' it." advice is extremely dangerous, and a disservice to the person asking the question.

 

My wife (not a Westerner) is an extremely high level executive in a very desirable international corporation. She often interviews foreign candidates, not only for employment, but also for internships that are expected to lead to employment. I know that there are standards that must be adhered to concerning grooming and appearance. In her culture, this is important, not only in the workplace, but in customer-facing operations, too. If you heard what she says about haircuts, hair color, and makeup, what she thinks about tattoos might really open your eyes.

 

In any case, you are entitled to your opinions, but so am I. I freely admit to my prejudices, and generally am not willing to change my opinion based on those prejudices. But I'm willing to accept the consequences. 

 

And I'm out of the tattoo business "from where the sun now stands, forever."

 

TBZ

[Demonic_Duck]

On 7/3/2022 at 2:56 PM, TheBigZaboon said:

But I personally think casual "Yeah, don't worry. No problem anymore. Everybody's doin' it." advice is extremely dangerous, and a disservice to the person asking the question.

 

I mean, people come here for advice within the parameters of "I've decided to get a tattoo, are these characters suitable?", not to be lectured on tattoos in general. People are generally aware that some other people have prejudices against tattoos, we don't need to warn them about it.

 

I have a tattoo. Got it when I was 18 on a whim. Looks great, don't regret it. Never once experienced any tattoo-based prejudice whatsoever when I was in China, mainly just compliments if anyone mentioned it at all. Guess I should be glad I'm not *clutches pearls* a FEMALE.

[TheBigZaboon]

I'm glad you're not a female, too... Phew...

 

But the issue is not whether you have a tattoo, or your right to have a tattoo. I frankly don't care. I love you for yourself... Not for your tattoos... (Pearls clatter to the floor and roll under Auntie Xiaoying's wedding gift credenza.)

 

But the idea that the various (mostly) Asian societies some of us live in, and make our livings in, don't have long standing, deeply ingrained antipathy towards tatts is risible. And here's a little secret I've learned over the years. There are other rights and privileges we foreigners enjoy, hold dear, and would fiercely defend if challenged, that our friends and family members may resent, in fact may deeply resent, but that they would never dream of confronting us with for any number of reasons. So silence, even strained silence, or compliments, real or duty induced, are not reliable as indicators of real deeply held opinions (what the Japanese refer to as 'honne vs tatemae').

 

Enough. No more from me on this subject. Really!!!

 

Now I feel I have to apologize to the great Chief Joseph, because I made a promise in his name, and I broke it in less than an hour. Sorry, Chief...

 

TBZ

 

 

[Publius]

Came across two articles on WeChat recently about tattoos. Somehow immediately thought of this thread. Enjoy!

没有偏见，你还纹身吗？

点“外卖”遇到仙人跳，我居然还赚钱了…