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Japanese tattoos are
cool. But if a personal translator is out of your league how
can you avoid becoming a kanji fashion victim and get stuck
with a tattoo you will really regret?
1. Know the difference - hiragana,
katakana and kanji
Before you talk to your tattoo artist, make sure you know
what you are talking about. You say you want a Japanese tattoo,
but what do you know about Japanese characters? You need a
quick stint in 2-minute Japanese boot camp.
First off, let's be clear that there is no Japanese "alphabet".
There are three sets of Japanese characters - hiragana, katakana
and kanji - and each group has its own history, function and
style. Get your head around these facts and you will already
know more than 99% of the people walking around with Japanese
tattoos right now:
Hiragana - These simple, rounded characters represent sounds,
but have no independent meaning. They were developed by women
in the Heian period and are still considered feminine by Japanese
people.
Katakana - Developed by Buddhist monks around the same time
as hiragana, these are simple, angular characters that also
represent sounds and have no meaning of their own. You saw
them cascading down the screen in Matrix (although they were
backwards!)
Kanji - Originally from China, these characters are like
pictures, representing a meaning and also several different
sounds depending on the situation.
Just reading this has probably given you an idea of which
style you might like for your tattoo - but don't stop just
yet! Now you know what kinds of Japanese characters there
are, let's move on to.
2. Writing styles
Come a bit closer. Lean forward towards the screen. That's
right. Now, look at the words in front of you. Take a good,
close look at the shapes of these letters. OK? Now tell me
honestly: Would you want a tattoo in Times New Roman? How
about Tahoma? What's that? You don't want a tattoo by Canon
or Epson? Sure you don't. And in the same way, you don't want
to have your Japanese tattoo looking like a printout either!
So, now we move on to writing styles. Just like there are
three kinds of Japanese characters, there are also three ways
they can be written. Don't worry. This is easy! I know, you
are thinking that you can't even read Japanese, so how on
earth will you be able to recognize these different styles?
Well, try this:
Kaisho - Block letters. You learned to write your ABCs like
this, and Japanese kids learn to write their characters in
just the same way: Like a Volvo - boxy but good.
Gyousho - Cursive letters. You moved up to middle school
and learned you could write faster by letting the parts of
some letters flow into the next. Yes, you guessed it - the
Japanese do the same thing, and they call it gyousho.
Sousho - Super-cursive letters. Ever seen a prescription
from a doctor? Then you know what sousho is like in Japanese:
Sure, the writer or some other trained person can (probably)
read it, but no one else has a clue what it says!
Are you getting the picture? If you want to look like a computer
printout, then be my guest and go for the kaisho style. That's
your choice. But I think you probably want to use either gyousho
or sousho for your tattoo. My personal preference would be
gyousho: It's stylish, but it won't leave even native speakers
baffled.
3. Real or fake?
Remember I mentioned Mel C at the beginning? Well guess what
kanji she got tattooed on her arm? That's right - "Girl
Power": Great in English, but show this kanji combincation
to most Japanese people and you'll get a blank look at best.
Want a worse example? Try "big daddy". Now, you
know what it means in English, but put it into kanji and you
end up with "large father"! It just doesn't work.
I'm sure you remember that kanji are the only characters
that have meaning as well as sound. And their beauty means
that they are what most people want for their tattoos. But
watch out: As well as being popular, they can also be the
most dangerous!
Let's see if we can find a pattern here: Look carefully at
the examples above. What are they communicating - concrete
concepts or abstract ideas? Can you see the difficulty the
translators had? The kanji for "dragon", "samurai",
"love" or any other concrete ideas are pretty easy
to discover. But go for anything with an idiomatic meaning
and whoever is trying to help you translate it is going to
get a major headache!
Just an idea, but how about this suggestion: Rather than
trying to force a round English peg into a square Japanese
hole, why not find a real Japanese phrase that you like and
get that instead? Bushidou (the Way of the Warrior) and Ninjutsu
(The Art of Stealth) are two good examples of real Japanese
terms that would make great tattoos.
4. Your name in Japanese
As I'm sure you remember from 2-minute Japanese boot camp,
katakana are the characters usually used to write foreign
words and names. So, if you want to get a tattoo of your name,
technically these would be the characters you would choose.
But I am guessing that, like most people, you want your name
written in kanji.
Do a quick search on Google and you can find a number of
sites that specialize in translating names into kanji. Basically
there are two different methods that these sites use, so let's
look at them here.
Translating the meaning
This method involves finding out the original meaning of
the English name, and then researching the kanji equivalent.
For example, my name has its origins in Greek and means "crowned
one". The one who is crowned is the king, so I could
translate my name into the kanji for king and call myself
ohsama. (Perhaps a little pretentious - and disturbingly similar
to Mr. Bin Laden's first name!)
Translating the sound
This is a lot more difficult! Flick through a dictionary
and you will find a bunch of kanji that can be combined to
sound like your name. But sound isn't everything: Remember
that kanji have meaning as well. In fact, it is even more
complex than this! Be sure to check each of the following
factors with anyone who translates your name like using this
method:
1. Sound - Does it sound like your name or not? I have seen
my name "translated" on certain websites to sound
like Stefan. Shame my name (Stephen) is actually said the
same as Steven!
2. On-yomi and kun-yomi - Yes, more technical words! But
don't panic - they are easy to understand: Basically, kanji
have two kinds of reading. One kind, on-yomi, is their original
Chinese sound. The other, kun-yomi, is their Japanese-only
sound. What to watch is that (like oil and water) on-yomi
and kun-yomi don't mix. Use either all on-yomi reading or
all kun-yomi readings to make the sound of your name.
3. Meaning - Do the kanji have a good meaning together? Now,
it can be very difficult to find kanji that sound right and
have a good meaning, so you may need to compromise a little
on one of these.
4. Masculine or feminine - I guess this is more like a sub-category
of meaning, but it is something you need to check out to avoid
embarrassment. For example, while "Asian Beauty"
may be a great combination for a woman, I get the feeling
most men would not be too happy about having that permanently
written into their skin!
5. If in doubt, check!
First, use your new-found knowledge of Japanese to ask a
few difficult questions to your tattoo artist or kanji "specialist".
If you get the feeling they don't know what they are talking
about, you probably want to look elsewhere.
Next, before you get anything permanent done, use an online
dictionary (like the one at http://kanjidict.stc.cx/dict)
to check whether the Japanese really means what you want it
to. You may not be able to input Japanese yourself, but you
can copy and paste characters from an email or web page and
see what they mean.
Finally, if you are lucky enough to know any, ask a Japanese
person what they think. Their confused expression may tell
you that you have come up with another "big daddy"!
Follow this advice and you will avoid the most dangerous
pitfalls of Japanese tattoos and get a kanji tattoo you can
be proud of.
About The Author:
Stephen Munday lives in Japan and is the creator of www.japanese-name-translation.com,
where you can download images of over 2,200 names in kanji
or have a unique phrase translated into Japanese for a tattoo.
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