More Kanji Tattoo Mistakes

Another roundup of poorly done kanji tattoos, caught by our friend Tian at Hanzi Smatter who runs an excellent blog on the subject of misused kanji.


They think it means: “Sheep”
Actual meaning: “Not yet, have not” (huh?)

They think it means: “Woman with heart”
Actual meaning: “Adequate loyalty” (with typo in “loyalty”)


They think it means: “Moonlight”
Actual meaning: “Moon”


They think it means: “Pain, blood, sweat, tears”
Actual meaning: Terrible writing; missing strokes and extra dots


They think it means: “In loving memory of mother”
Actual meaning: “Don’t forget” (nonchalant/low-priority use)


They think it means: “Jujitsu”
Actual meaning: Terrible writing; second character is wrong
Tian adds: “This is a disgrace to the teachings of the Jujitsu martial art.”


They think it means: “Empty Soul”
Actual meaning: “Courageous Soul”  

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Thanks Tian!

8 thoughts on “More Kanji Tattoo Mistakes

  1. The first one is on my arm and i’m 100 percent certain that it means sheep or possibly goat. I wouldn’t say it’s poorly done (a bit too deep perhaps), however the aftercare by yours truly was done really bad (a lot of scratching and so forth)

  2. The first one is on my arm and i’m 100 percent certain that it means sheep or possibly goat. I wouldn’t say it’s poorly done (a bit too deep perhaps), however the aftercare by yours truly was done really bad (a lot of scratching and so forth)

  3. Well, then you are 100% mistaken (if you don’t have proper settings on your computer, you won’t be able to properly see the symbols below)

    This is sheep/goat: 羊

    This is not/not yet: 未 (kind of looks like your tattoo huh)

    and as far as poorly done, he means caligraphy wise, i.e. it’s bad handwriting

    This would have been better (and mean what you wanted it to)

  4. Well, then you are 100% mistaken (if you don’t have proper settings on your computer, you won’t be able to properly see the symbols below)

    This is sheep/goat: 羊

    This is not/not yet: 未 (kind of looks like your tattoo huh)

    and as far as poorly done, he means caligraphy wise, i.e. it’s bad handwriting

    This would have been better (and mean what you wanted it to)

  5. actually, there are two sets of chinese characters for the chinese zodiacs: the normal animal characters and the “dizhi” (地支) characters

    rat: 鼠 (shu), 子 (zi)
    ox: 牛 (niu), 丑 (chou)
    tiger: 虎 (hu), 寅 (yin)
    rabbit: 兔 (tu), 卯 (mao)
    dragon: 龙/龍 (long), 辰 (chen)
    snake: 蛇 (she), 巳 (si)
    horse: 马/馬 (ma), 午 (wu)
    sheep: 羊 (yang), 未 (wei)
    monkey: 猴 (hou), 申 (shen)
    rooster: 鸡/雞 (ji), 酉 (you)
    dog: 狗 (gou), 戌 (xu)
    pig: 猪/豬 (zhu), 亥 (hai)

    the dizhi characters are rarely used nowadays now, except when in conjugation with the tiangan (天干) characters to name the chinese years. so i wouldn’t say that “未” for sheep is TERRIBLY wrong

  6. actually, there are two sets of chinese characters for the chinese zodiacs: the normal animal characters and the “dizhi” (地支) characters

    rat: 鼠 (shu), 子 (zi)
    ox: 牛 (niu), 丑 (chou)
    tiger: 虎 (hu), 寅 (yin)
    rabbit: 兔 (tu), 卯 (mao)
    dragon: 龙/龍 (long), 辰 (chen)
    snake: 蛇 (she), 巳 (si)
    horse: 马/馬 (ma), 午 (wu)
    sheep: 羊 (yang), 未 (wei)
    monkey: 猴 (hou), 申 (shen)
    rooster: 鸡/雞 (ji), 酉 (you)
    dog: 狗 (gou), 戌 (xu)
    pig: 猪/豬 (zhu), 亥 (hai)

    the dizhi characters are rarely used nowadays now, except when in conjugation with the tiangan (天干) characters to name the chinese years. so i wouldn’t say that “未” for sheep is TERRIBLY wrong

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