I've been studying Japanese extensively for two years and while I'm not by any means fluent but I am still astonished by the variety and severity of mistakes made in kanji tattoos. Ideally people wouldn't get tattoos in languages they don't know (If you are committed enough to have something written on your body for life you should be committed enough to learn at least a little of the language it's in) But I doubt that will ever happen so here is a guide to getting it as correct as possible.
At A Glance Author Uberkitty Contact [email protected] IAM Uberkitty When N/A Starting Facts:
Japanese has 3 writing systems, two are phonic, katakana and hiragana, and one, kanji, is ideographic.
KATAKANA is used to write foreign words and names. If you want your or anyone else's name in Japanese, and it is not a Japanese name, it should be written in katakana. This will only be an approximation of the sound because each character is an entire syllable, not a letter. For example Elizabeth becomes "Erizabesu." It is also impossible to write out initials like this because there is not way to write out single consonants. The writing itself looks relatively simple and is made mostly of straight lines with hard angles.
HIRAGANA is a phonic system that is used to supplement kanji, it can however be used to replace kanji completely to make the Japanese easier to read. If you want a phrase or sentence tattooed on you in Japanese it will most likely use some hiragana. The writing itself looks relatively simple and is made of mostly curvy characters.
KANJI is what comes to everyone's mind when they think of Japanese. Each character represented an idea or thing and can be pronounced in several ways. Some words are made of one kanji and others are made of several in combination. You should not try to write names in kanji because at best it comes out as gibberish and at worse...well, I figured out how to write my brother's name so that is meant "evil vegetable."
Common mistakes in kanji Tattoos:
Wrong kanji altogether
You'd be surprised how common this is. Mostly happens due to ignorance on the part of both the artist and customer. This is very easily avoidable by a bit of homework. I have to empathizes to never pick kanji from a sheet of flash and trust it.
Kanji is written slightly off, changing the meaning completely
Keep in mind that there are over 50,000 kanji so many times the difference between two kanji is very very minimal. For example the difference between "cat" and "draw" is that the left side of cat is a bit slantlier. Some parts or aspects of a kanji that seem to be decorative or unimportant can in fact hold almost the entire meaning. Compare the kanji you want in many different fonts and if at all possible make sure the final copy is Okayed by a native speaker. Can't find a native speaker? Contacting the Asian Studies or Foreign Language department of a University will most likely work and the people there are usually willing to help. If that's not an option you can always hire a professional translator (It's worth the money! They will cost significantly less than a cover up or tattoo removal)
Kanji is poorly written, but in the end legible
This is kind of the less sever version of the same mistake, but it's still sloppy. Imagine getting English written on you in the handwriting of a 6 year old. You could read it but it wouldn't look all that nice.
Kanji combination makes sense but form made up words
It was stated in an earlier column that there is so such word as "girl power" in Japanese, yes you can write it in kanji, but that still doesn't make it a real word. Slang and buzzwords will always be difficult to translate. Writing things like this out in Katakana may be a better option.
Kanji is flipped/inverted
Check the stencil once it's one you body and know what it should look like. And not to be obvious but if you need to check it in a mirror remember it should look inverted to you.
Kanji superficially means what you think, but not really
This is by far the greatest problem of all, at least 50% if not more of all kanji flash I have ever seen falls into this category. The kanji sort of means what it says but it has multiple connotations and the one you are trying to make it represent is not the most common one. Think of it this way, what would you think if you saw someone with a tattoo that said "will" would it mean will as in "I will do something" "It's his will that I..." or "I wrote a will?" In fact someone turned down the work "use" from Shelley Jackson's Skin project for this reason. All languages have things like this and when translating you have the unfortunate chance ending up with the wrong connotation twice. Once when you translate it if from English (you may translate the wrong definition) and once when you end up in Japanese (the word may have a different primary definition than you think.)
You'll have to be very careful about this because it's difficult to get from dictionaries even if you cross-reference the English to the Japanese, then back to English in many different dictionaries. If you go to a native speaker make sure they know what definition you're meaning to end up with or they too may miss it. This is the one thing which will be most difficult.
What now?
If you have IAM you can check out IAM: Dita she runs BME Japan and has a kanji forum available on her page. If not as I mentioned before universities are a pretty good bet and professional translators are an option you shouldn't dismiss. It will leave you confident that what you just put on you body is correct.