Often cited as the most challenging and difficult foreign language for Westerners to learn, Chinese is a language with an exceptionally rich and diverse history, and is one that would certainly put our own background to shame. One of the most demanding and taxing aspects of learning Chinese is the writing of the Mandarin characters, (Chinese does not have an alphabet but simply words) and so Chinese calligraphy has became something of an art form in of itself. Even native Chinese speakers often struggle to properly write the traditional style of Chinese symbols and as a direct result this meant that the Chinese government brought in an alternate form of Chinese, the “simplified Chinese” or pinyin.
Traditional Chinese characters however are far from being an extinct species and are have enjoyed something of a surprise revival within the tattoo world and industry, with ever increasing people wanting to use the traditional characters as a template. Curiously, given the rather ornate style of the original Chinese characters this means that words that mean rather mundane things in Chinese have became the latest and greatest shown off by a celebrity. Whilst words such as love, hope and faith are all quite “trendy” even words such as sky and water have been used!
It may sound like a rather unusual precaution, but please make sure you that have double checked that you:
-actually understand what your desired Chinese character translates as
-The correct symbol for your chosen idea.
The problem with many of the Chinese characters is that they can mean something totally different due to a slight variation in the basic shape, whether this is the omission or addition of a dot or stroke. The same issue also rears its head in relation to the pronunciation, within pinyin, words can sometimes have up to four different meanings dependent on how you pronounce them. A good example of this is the Chinese “ma” can mean mother/linen/horse/to swear dependent on the grammatical accent placed on it. The last thing you want is to have a Chinese tattoo designed to forever honour your mother only to discover that you are instead paying homage to a horse!
Make sure you choose a Chinese symbol, not on the basis of how it looks, but on the basis of the level of significance it has for you, after all this is a permanent decision and as such should not be taken lightly
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