You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Got a (midlife crisis) tattoo Tuesday, love it and now want more. I'd like some calligraphy-style kanji as Japan is ace, but does anyone have any suggestions as to good places to find it? We're going to Japan in October, and I don't want to go there thinking I have a killer phrase on my leg only to find out it actually means "Pondo has cat aids" or similar.
I may be mis-remembering but doesn't the Japanese not like tattoos due to being linked with the criminal element
what on earth do you mean by 'good kanji'?
Yes, tattoos in Japan are traditionally only worn by Yakuza gangsters, so not one to be showing off.
Would be embarrassing to end up with "foreign dickhead wanted a tattoo" down your arm though.
The "difficult second tattoo" dilemma. Had my first midlife crisis tattoo in February, have an idea for the second but not sure where to have it done.
Very disappointed. Thought the title was a typo by a couple of letters.
Sheldon: Why do you have the Chinese character for "soup" tattooed on your right buttock?
Penny: It's not "soup," it's "courage."
Sheldon: No it isn't. But I suppose it does take courage to demonstrate that kind of commitment to soup.
Penny: How'd you see it? You said you wouldn't look.
Sheldon: Sorry. As I told you, the hero always peeks.
Do you like animals? These are the kanji for a cow and a horse. They'll demonstrate your love of animals.
焼鳥定食
Tasty!
チカンに注意
xoraFull Member https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation/blockquote >
That's just daft. Where do you draw the line? Never watch a Kurusawa film? Never eat sushi? Not have a rhododendron in your garden?
Where do you draw the line? Never watch a Kurusawa film?
The guy's overrated. Just seemed to tell the same story over and over again.
Here’s my three:
The lower one is difficult to photograph, because it’s on the underside of my arm, and yes, the top one is two different things.
They’re all in sōsho style calligraphy, the top character is Kan, meaning ‘barrier’, below it is a Zen brush circle, and the bottom one is also sōsho style, it’s an old martial arts saying; Mu Nen Mu Sō - no thoughts, no desires. The original calligraphy was by an American, Steve Weiss, who’s studied Zen Buddhism and calligraphy for a long time. It took me quite a long time searching the interwebz trying to find good examples of that style of calligraphy, I knew it as ‘grass’, or ‘running’ style, I didn’t know the term sōsho. I have one or two similar examples, I’ll put them into Photo bucket, along with the original source of my tattoos.
Some of these I don’t have a translation of, but Google Images will probably help find the originals:
There you go, some references to be going on with. Regarding the Japanese, younger Japanese are much more open about the art, but it’s very difficult to find tattooists over there, and older people are still resistant to it. Visiting an Onsen with tattoos is a problem, most require them to be covered up, but some can be found with a more relaxed attitude.
I may be mis-remembering but doesn’t the Japanese not like tattoos due to being linked with the criminal element
Yup. I cleared an onsen in the hills above Hamada. Reception were accepting that as a European white male I was unlikely to be involved with the Yakuza but the people actually using the onsen when we walked in were less than impressed. And that was for a shitty wyvern tattoo I have on my calf.
Speaking from *experience, I can heartily recommend 'going the whole hog'. If you're serious about Japanese tattooing it's worth looking wider than kanji into traditional styles like Irezumi. It's a big commitment but well executed Irezumi is like nothing else in the tattoo world.
*Experience being both arms and chest plates done in traditional Irezumi (Autumn inspired on the left side, and Spring on the right).
Abingham I've a full autumn bodysuit, love japanese irezumi
I may be mis-remembering but doesn’t the Japanese not like tattoos due to being linked with the criminal element
I've got a thumb sized green dragon tattoo on my ankle. 21st birthday present from my sister. Age 44 it looks like "an alien", "a blob", "err what is it" but even with the original source right next to it, not much like the green dragon.
I was told that I had to have a plaster over it in onsens.
Chose your tattooist wisely. Turns out Bill " best tattoos in Scotland" might have just had that painted on his shop with no justification what so ever!
@CountZero that's EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm looking for, hand-painted calligraphy type kanji. Thank you! 🙂
*browses off to google Steve Weiss... *
@pondo - he’s not easy to track down, I’m not even sure if he’s still working in the field, or when those pieces were done. As I said, I spent quite a lot of time searching before I tracked those down. Worth spending time, though, cursive sōsho is absolutely beautiful when executed well.
Just don’t go there. Certainly, in some cultures, particularly Polynesian and Maōri, nobody should ever attempt to get a tattoo done in their style, because the tattoos are specific to families and tell stories of their families heritage. Same is true of American First Nations tattoo art.
The Japanese, on the other hand, have been appropriating stuff from every other culture in that part of Asia for centuries; their written language, their ceramics, their steel-making, they’ve even appropriated written English, and call it Romanji. Teenage dress styles are appropriated from European and American pop culture.
Just don’t accuse anyone from this country of cultural appropriation when it concerns Japanese culture, they’ve been at it so much longer, they’ve got a lot more experience and practice.
Tattoo agnostic but wanted to add that cultural appropriation accusation accusations can get back under the marxist rock they slithered out from under
🙂
Romaji. But otherwise yes.
I can't help but wonder if on a Japanese samurai forum there is a parallel thread in which someone's asking for English words to get tattooed......
there is a parallel thread in which someone’s asking for English words to get tattooed……
Don’t know about tattoos, but JDM cars often have wonderful meaningless English phrases on them.
My JDM MR2 had ‘a man in dandism, midship powered speciality’
I think there is precedent for each side.
I can’t help but wonder if on a Japanese samurai forum there is a parallel thread in which someone’s asking for English words to get tattooed……
Not sure on that one but if you've watch any "Abroard in Japan" or "Noriyro" you'll soon notice there are regular instance of products that have english words on them that dont quite fit the product they're on.
"Like a magic👍"