Chinese Character Tattoos

Chinese character tattoos or kanji tattoos are tattoos consisting of Chinese characters (hanzikanji). or

To people who are attracted to Chinese characters and are thinking of getting one, some careful steps must be taken. There have been cases where tattoo artists have been caught writing foul or silly slogans, inaccurately-translated characters, or pseudo-Chinese gibberish on their clients, who are unaware of the actual meaning of the Chinese characters.^[1]

There are over 80,000 Chinese characters, but most of them are seldom used today. So how many Chinese characters do you need to know? For basic reading and writing of modern Chinese, you only need a few thousands.

Chinese character (in addition to Japanese kana) tattoos are commonly found on mixed martial artists who are familiar with Asian martial arts. Chuck Liddell, a former UFC champion, tattooed his scalp to read Koei-Kan or "house of happiness and prosperity"^[2], the style of karate he trained in. Georges St. Pierre, another UFC champion as well as a practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and karate, has the kanji word for "jujutsu" on his chest. Jeff Monson has the characters for "Hero" on his upper back.