Nice calligraphy for "dao" symbol tattoo

[zefodao]

Could you guys please help me?
I'd like to have a tattoo with the "dao" symbol drawn in a nice calligraphy, but I am not sure if the ones I found on the net are good.

I attached some I liked, but please feel free to recommend any other.

[Lu]

They all look nice. I like the first one best: it's a nice calligraphy, very readable. As to the second one, there is some symbolism attached to that circle. I have no idea what, or what it means or is related to. If you do know and want to incorporate it in your tattoo, you can opt for this one. The writing is very nice. The third one is also good, but more artistic.

 

Make sure you find a tattooist who knows what they're doing when it comes to characters. And I'd leave out the little red stamp.

 

Lastly, consider instead of getting a tattoo, getting a nice calligraphy scroll of this character to hang in your living room. You and all your friends will be able to see it; calligraphy on scrolls is a centuries-old, highly respected Chinese art form; and if at some point you get tired of this specific character, or you learn that the calligrapher was a hack and the character is ugly, you can easily roll up the scroll and hang up something else.

[Xue Li]

Just my two cents on the second drawing, which I like very much

The circle is not a Chinese symbol but is the Japanese symbol called “Enso” 円相 (circle) and it is used by Japanese Buddhists to represent many philosophical concepts.

Among the various meanings Enso signifies: the Infinity, the Buddhism (Zen), life, enlightenment etc... On internet you can find many sites dedicated to Enso.

It is brush painted, one stroke in only one movement and the circle can be either close or open like the one shown in the post.

Sometime the artist adds a character (or a phrase) to the circle in order to make more clear the idea or concept he wants to convey.

In this case the character 道 (Chinese “Dao” Japanese “do”) has the same meaning “the way” in both languages but in Chinese also means “Taoism” while in Japan is more often used to signify “school” “method” “technique” like in the martial arts as judo, kendo, karatedo, etc.

Nobody can really tell the real meaning of the drawing posted above, each one can give his own meaning, but the addition of the Taoist symbol “the way” to the Buddhist symbol of “enlightenment” reminds me that the source of the Japanese Buddhism Zen was the Chinese Buddhism Chan which originated in China around the VI century by the merging of Buddhism with Taoism.

[zefodao]

wow guys, thanks for the input!

 

@Lu, thank you for the suggestion, I really apreciate it!

@Xue Li, I did not know about the enso circle, very interesting!
I like it even more now, I've been reading about buddhism recently and I love the idea of adding another layer of meaning to the symbol.

I'm inclined towards the second one now

[TheBigZaboon]

 

 

You're not a dentist are you? Perhaps this might be better for you as a tattoo... Another layer of meaning, so to speak...

 

My local dentist... I haven't yet asked her if she has this as a tattoo... ???????

 

TBZ