SorrowKanji is Chinese lettering which is very popular in the tattoo world. There are some funny stories about people getting Kanji done only to find out later that the artist had messed up work and the symbols say things other then what the collector had intended.
I have a couple Kanji on my leg as part of my leg piece. I have often wondered if what I meant to say with my Kanji is what it actually says. I had done research online to fine the symbols for "family" and "joy" but when my artist did them, I was afraid he had changed them a little bit too much to be artistic rather the factual.
This past weekend I attended the Woodstock-Ulster County Fine Arts Festival and met a delightful woman from Alfred, NY who would do any Kanji symbols you wanted and frame them. I had looked at the ones she had done but didn't see anything I wanted. We got to talking and I asked her if she could show me the word "sorrow". It's a word I want tattooed and have done some research but have seen several different versions. She took a piece of rice paper and prepared her brush and started putting ink to paper as she explained the process. I was thrilled to recognize the kanji she produced knowing that I was on the right track. She then added another symbol that turned it into "sorrowing". Then she showed me what "sad" looks like. Then she wrote my name, Cindi. I asked her how much she would sell me that piece of rice paper for and after thinking she handed it to me as a gift.
My name in Kanji - CindiI was so happy that I got brave enough to ask her if she could read the Kanji on my leg. I lifted my shorts and she looks and smiled and said, "oh, it's says family happiness". I was so happy! I don't have to worry about it anymore, what I wanted is what I got and is recognizable to people who really do read kanji!
This artist will be at a show in Lockport next weekend and then the following weekend at the huge show in Buffalo, the Allendale Art Show. I loved her work and will try to catch up with her so I can get some of her work. She does rice paper and watercolor of koi, cranes and other beautiful Chinese imagines.
7 comments:
kanji is Japanese actually.
Not exclusively; it was originally Chinese, and is now used in Japan and Taiwan as well, to name a few.
It was also used in Korea before their character system was developed.
My issue with people getting kanji tattoos is simple: to me, it looks like words randomly inked into your skin. When you can read kanji, tattoos of them become as strange as an easterner getting "soup" or "happy" tattooed on them in English.
i disagree. i can read english just fine as well as some characters in kanji and i don't see a problem with a 260lb black guy ex-con with a huge tattoo of the words "bad ass" written across the back of his neck in some gothic flowery font. sociologically speaking, the tattoo worn by a chinese triad gangster that reads "warrior" or "crazy" in kanji would be an equivalent exchange. --if the shoe fits, wear it. if the tat matches the person or their way, observe it and then let it go...
unless you only like tattoos of pictures or of 'meaningless' designs, it makes good enough sense to me
now if they aren't sure about the kanji's translation and mess up, like the author of this post was concerned about, then they just look like idiots until they get it removed-- which is your point :-)
hi I'm Liza i was just wondering if you could translate my name in kanji. Thanks!
Liza, there are no characters for western names in Kanji. In fact I'm almost certain there are no ways for you to identify yourself with the Japanese culture, as there is no Katakana that could spell out you're name.
Kanji is just the Japanese word for Chinese characters, and it literally means, "letters from the Han (Dynasty)." The majority are the same in Chinese and in Japanese. Also, if you can write "Cindy" in Kanji you can write "Liza." Sure, the Japanese (or Chinese) pronunciations are a bit different. So that what Cindy's name actually says, in Japanese pronunciation, is "SHIN-TI." You can't get closer in Kanji than this (well, you could go for SHIN-JI, which would be nearby as well). For Liza, you could combine a variety of Kanji to get the sound of RI-ZA or RI-SA, which is quite close.
Post a Comment