Hi guys,
I decided to make a tattoo with kanji symbols, 
The translation is correct (see image for kanji symbols)? 


First: journey
Second: life
Third: begin
Fourth: step
Thanks in advance 

If you don't know the language and have to ask if it's correct then don't do it.

I have a feeling the third kanji isn't even right. Never seen it in Japanese, so it might be a hanzi.

Many years ago, I got a kanji tattoo, but, being fully aware of how often this goes wrong, I did much research. I selected 文武両道 because its meaning strongly resonated with me. I selected it from amongst the many yojijukugo (japanese four kanji idioms), and if I was going to get another, I would go this route again. Find one of the yojijukugo that resonates with you and use that. You can learn more about them here: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/yojijukugo-idioms/ . Trying to choose kanji for a tatoo on your own based on english meanings of individual kanji sounds like a good way to give yourself a badge of shame you will wear for life.

(2016-04-04, 10:55 am)zx573 Wrote: I have a feeling the third kanji isn't even right. Never seen it in Japanese, so it might be a hanzi.

Yes it's a kanji (肇), it's in RTK3. Pyrosphere gives 肇歳 (beginning of the year) and 肇国 (founding of a state) as examples, so you can tell by this OP it's a little formal/pompous (and maybe too specific), as rare kanji often are.

But like zx says it feels weird because it's much rarer than the thee other, more frequent kanji that can mean begin are 初, 始, and then there are even more that mean origin/source (本, 元...).

The yojijukugo isn't a bad idea though.

I'll also add that even if you pick correct kanji, the artist gets it right, etc most native japanese speakers will still find it kind of weird (at least, that's been my experience). The issues around tattoos and japanese culture are bigger than what I'll get into here, but tattoo culture just isn't (yet) a part of mainstream japanese culture for a variety of reasons. So, this may not factor into your motivations at all for getting one (it didn't mine), but it's another data point to be aware of.

(2016-04-04, 11:15 am)EratiK Wrote:

(2016-04-04, 10:55 am)zx573 Wrote: I have a feeling the third kanji isn't even right. Never seen it in Japanese, so it might be a hanzi.

Yes it's a kanji (肇), it's in RTK3. Pyrosphere gives 肇歳 (beginning of the year) and 肇国 (founding of a state) as examples, so you can tell OP it's a little formal/pompous (and maybe too specific), as rare kanji often are.

But like zx says it feels weird because it's much rarer than the thee other, more frequent kanji that can mean begin are 初, 始, and then there are even more that mean origin/source (本, 元...).

The yojijukugo isn't a bad idea though.

I stand corrected then. Thanks for the info. I just looked it up and the only words I could find it used in were the two you mentioned. :/

If the guy is dead set on getting a kanji tattoo then yojijukugo wouldn't be a bad idea, but imo there's just too much that could go wrong still (tattoo artist could mess it up even if the kanji are right, the meaning might not be exactly what you think, etc).

There is a classic website for this kind of thing: http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/

What would you think if you saw an Asian person with a tattoo that said "Journey life begin step"? That's what your tattoo will look like. If you still want it, go ahead, but the only people that will think it looks good are people who don't know Chinese or Japanese.

肇歩 is a forename, Hatsuho.

for the 2 minutes it took me to read this thread, it has been a great look at 肇, which I haven't added to my learned pile from RTK3 yet. thanks!

related to the OP, I think the only people who will appreciate a made up yoji jukugo will be people who have no knowledge of Chinese characters, and in that case, you might as well get an already well established yoji jukugo so that it will at least not look like you were drunk and asked someone to write Chinese on you to those who can read it.

(2016-04-04, 3:44 pm)Dovetron Wrote: for the 2 minutes it took me to read this thread, it has been a great look at 肇, which I haven't added to my learned pile from RTK3 yet. thanks!

related to the OP, I think the only people who will appreciate a made up yoji jukugo will be people who have no knowledge of Chinese characters, and in that case, you might as well get an already well established yoji jukugo so that it will at least not look like you were drunk and asked someone to write Chinese on you to those who can read it.

a quick google search for "旅生肇歩" returns no results. in the world. I would put this in the linguistic realm of such things as gfycat URLs.

So the OP is going for something like 人生の旅の最初の一歩 ("The first step in the journey of life")? How about something like 人生は旅 ("Life is a journey") instead? It's shorter.

I think most Japanese people still look on tattoos as signifying yakuza or the like, so I'm not sure that choosing reasonable characters really improves the situation.

Ah, good point...